New engine issues

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I got the engine fired up today and after fully warmed up i plugged off the port on the vaccum advance and the 2 vaccum ports on the edelbrock carb and set timing to 36º with timing light . With full time vaccum line hooked up to the vaccum advance it was reading 40º ? I didn't know if it made a difference since I have a mopar performance racing distributor with performance curv?
 
It is not 100% clear, so bear with me. If you set this 36* at idle then that is not the correct procedure. 32-34-36-38* refers to total ignition advance at RPM's in the 3000 RPM range + or -. That 'total' is what you set at idle (with the vacuum advance plugged off as you did), plus the mechanical advance in the distributor that adds in as RPM's increase.

Others can speak to the numbers better than I, but I would expect the MP distributor to add around 20* when it adds in its maximum amount of additional advance. So you set the timing at idle to around 15* (called 'initial' timing) and then watch as you increase the RPM's to see where and at what RPM the maximum advance occurs. That RPM is where the extra mechancial timing is added referred to as 'all in'.

The 'performance curve' in your distributor refers to how much advance it adds in, and at what RPM's. Performance curves typically add the extra advance in sooner.
 
My experience has been that the mechanical curve of the MP distributors is too quick to be able to run the vacuum advance, as it comes ootb.
I prefer not to run more than about 45* advance(mech and vac combined), and the MP distributors are often quite a bit more than that.
That being said, I haven’t used a MP distributor in a while.

For the time being, if the distributor reaches full mechanical advance before about 3000rpm, I’d set it for 35-36* total, and leave the vacuum disconnected.
 
Additionally OP, make sure you vacuum advance connection is correct. For the Mopar system, it does not connect under the carb to intake vacuum. It connects to a point called 'ported vacuum', which may be called 'timed vacuum' in the instructions. Vacuum at the this port at idle RPM's should be 0 or very close to 0 inches of vacuum.
 
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