Having fun with timing
Wow thanks for the break down. I am running an automatic 727 with stock convertor and 3:55 gears. Ya I am still playing around with finding the sweet spots with timing advance.
Remember that these engines generally want less timing at peak torque and more timing at peak power.
How you get that done is the job.
If you know your engine peaks power at say 6k then you can reasonably figure peak torque is 1500-1800 rpm less than peak power.
So peak torque should be (in this example, yours could be different) in the 4200-4500 range.
Knowing that, you can now work to get the timing correct to peak torque. I’m not sure what heads you have or the particulars of your engine. You have to sort that out.
Having done this stuff for a bit I can say that unless you are turning 7500 plus your engine probably won’t need more than 35 total.
That means you should have 35 at 6k in my example.
I also know that it probably won’t want much more than 26-28 at peak torque.
Your job as the tuner is to figure out how to get the curve slow enough to get from say 20 initial at 1k idle to 26 by 4500.
Then you have to figure out how to get from 26 at 4500 to 35 at 6k.
It can be done but it’s easier if you have a distributor machine. And a day on a dyno would speed things up.
Also of note is the ignition you are using. Unless you are running points, every electronic ignition WILL retard with rpm.
Where it retards and how much is only a guess until you measure for it.
You have to account for this retard or you’ll never know what your actual timing is at any point in the rpm curve.