New engine issues

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.