I have been playing around with the timing as well. It idles best around 18 deg BTDC, right now it is at 14 deg BTDC. I had it as low as 10 deg BTDC, but it did not like that at all. The take off at idle is a lot smoother at 18, 14 is okay, at 10 it is jerky. The temperature would start to creep up at idle when the initial was set to 10, it doesnt go up as much when the idle was set at 14, but would idle all day long at 18 with no issue. I get my best vacuum readings at idle when the timing is set at 18 deg (hovering around 14 inHg), were at 10 deg I was getting 11-12 inHg. A lot more of the transfer slot has to be exposed for it to want to idle around 800 rpm at 10 BTDC than at 14 and 18 deg BTDC. Regardless of timing, the idle speed screw is almost maxed out (as in screwed in far enough to almost make the spring go solid) to keep the idle speed around 800. So my thought process was if that much of the transfer slot needed to be exposed, it wants more fuel.
