340 Chugging instead of Reving

Rat Bastid said

And that’s why you don’t lock out a distributor. For one all engines need a curve, however short it may be. And two, ALL ignition boxes retard like that. If you don’t test for it you have no idea how much timing you really have.

6 or more degrees of retard is not uncommon. I think I would lock timing out at 38 for now and start working with the rest of the tune up. IIRC, the plugs looked fat. That can some of the popping you are hearing.

Click to expand...

I put new plugs in, ran for 5 minutes with no change, swapped coil, ran for 5 min with no change. Then locked the distributor. Tried timing from 32 thru 38 and it ran much better but popped. Maybe I'm full circle back to carb settings?
I see what your saying about needing some.curve. others have said to set initial high with a slight mechanical around 8*. Now that I know that I'll loose around 6* in tne box, I could set initial at 32* with 6* advance (like I read others descibe) it makes much more sense now. In that example, I'd be adding back in the amount of degrees I'm loosing.