Thanks for the replies. This is all really helpful.
I talked to the previous owner, and he said he didn't know the extent of the rebuild. He said some guy in Oklahoma did it for him. He said he got pictures and it all looked clean, but he didn't have them anymore, and from the sound of things he was pretty young probably 15 when it happened.
Yeah, I figured I could just go to Autozone or Harbor Freight or anywhere and get a dwell meter... but I could only find a crappy digital one. I'm having friends dig through their dad's stuff looking for an analog one. If not I'll just find an MT415 on ebay or something. But for now I can use the O-scope. It's really cumbersome though.
Nice everybody is telling me to set it to 500+. As I recall it was MUCH happier around 525-550 RPM. In the first vacuum video I think the idle was 330ish, and for the second I had adjusted to 475 (as per the Chevy Service Manual). I have checked my timing, and it is good at idle. I do have a timing light with advance!
I do not yet understand this distributor, and it is not spinning when the engine is revved like I believe it is supposed to do...so I have been hesitant to rev it high.
@yar, I don't know what you mean by color. I'm guessing you mean that my plugs should look sort of tan/grey and dry like they do in a good engine? Not black and slimy like mine?
I will do a wet compression test, and a leakdown test soon and post the results. Rain, school, work and other "unimportant" things are getting in the way - I imagine this will happen Thursday night. I am going to go ahead and pull the carb and the distributor as they are a total mess...and pick up some AC46 equivalents.
I've been thinking it might be nice to take the front fenders off until I get the engine sorted. How hard is that?
