Initial timing

Initial timing

Distributor is not locked. I know the spark plug lead to gun has seen better days and should be replaced.
Timing at idle is steady. When I adjusted to approx 15* BTC, it barely idled.

318willrun said
Yes, 30 would be a lot unless the distributor is locked

GTX JOHN said
30 is insane unless distributor is locked or weights
are frozen in place! No wonder it is hard starting.
I would inspect/clean distributor and maybe put heavier
springs in it.
Does the lead go up if you rev the engine up to 3000 or
stay the same?

66fyssh said
My 5.9 likes a ton of initial also. Funny, I was just working on my timing today. I set it back to 20 and I'll see how the plugs look after some drive time. The plugs definitely showed too much timing at 30.

It got me to thinking about accuracy of the timing light and I found this thread. No definite answer, but it sounds like they don't go bad too often.

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/timing-light-accuracy.432830/