5.7L Hemi, 1968 Barracuda.. Opinions.

He was actually putting forth a rhetorical question. He was talking about Apache cylinder heads, because I was dead set on up grading from stock. I was telling him of all the different set ups I've read about, and he was asking me, " Do you know that what you have right now is optimized ? "
I kind of understand where he's coming from, in my own naive sense of things. With the old distributer engines you were sort of stuck in a set linear dimension. I suppose if you're good you could play with springs, and the slots, and stuff. With computer ignitions for instance, you could remove a bit of advance until you pass TDC, then quickly bring some back. ( correct me guys if I'm wrong ) With aluminum heads and 10:1 compression, you might ask why. If you know how to build a timing curve correctly, than you can have a custom cam ground. Unshackling yourself from generic of the shelf stuff. In my case with a carb, I could change the overlap of the cam, and build cylinder pressure. Which would make my combination think it has more compression than it actually does, or more dynamic compression. ( For those in the know ? am I correct ?) My reply to Ray was, I used the CD that came with the Hemi 6 to get a timing map by description. It runs super smooth, and doesn't knock, or ping. I tune my carb with a combination of a vacuum gauge, my ear, spark plug color, and the seat of my pants. To this great wisdom he replied, " It's lunch time." and I said ok, and he said, " No, I mean leave, go home." I think he found me tiresome.