Having fun with timing

Late bloomer finally understanding timing in general and enjoying tuning. Wish I took the time to learn to tune 20 years ago. I have to thank everyone here on the forum for the information provided and YouTuber's for the extremely informative information on advancing timing and timing curves. This was very intimidating for me at first but now I am enjoying the process because of understanding the basics of how timing works. I now have a base line that I can further tune from. I loved pulling the distributor and taking it apart seeing how they actually work. Getting that clip out of the shaft to remove the weight limiter was difficult for a minute but easy now. I currently have my mechanical (centrifugal) advance so it max's out at 16 degrees and I used the lightest springs FBO provided, maybe I should try even lighter springs. The MP electronic distributor only had one spring installed and from what I can tell from the spacing on the weight limiter slot it may only advance about 20 degrees mechanically possibly a bit more. The slot is not much larger than the 18 degree slot on the FBO disk. My base timing is currently 20 degrees w/o vacuum. If I adjust the vacuum canister screw all the way clockwise it will add 16 degrees max. I ran my engine with this 36 degrees for a bit and it ran pretty good. btw I have not run into any pinging yet, I am taking it slow with the adjustments. I backed off the vacuum advance a bit to 10 degrees so now I am at 30 degrees and it is more responsive. My total timing of 40 degrees comes in at 3200 RPM's somehow the math doesn't add up off by 4 degrees but the car runs much better and I can tell it is not running as rich as it was before. The exhaust stank before nasty stuff. I will be checking the sparkplugs after I drive it for a bit to see what is happening in the chambers. My 383 Barracuda is much happier as I am as well. It has a purple shaft cam 280/474 lift I believe, can't remember it has been so long and running the factory four barrel carb with stock exhaust. The exhaust system is 2.5" all the way to the tips. Just thought I would share my experience. Thanks!