Carb Tuning

The dist. can only be in time or 180* out and it can't "skip". It's not like a chevy that can jump a tooth. If you only loosened the dist. clamp a little the dist. couldn't have jumped 180 out. You have to remove the clamp completely and pull the dist. up about 1/2" to disengage it from the oil pump drive. If it did jump 180* out it would never start unless you turn the dist. half way around, not just a little bit. If in fact it did jump time it would be the timing chain that jumped on one of the sprockets. No ammount of timing adjustment will cure that. Check your spark plugs carefully. You may just have a bad plug. If their ok check your wires and cap. It could even be that you leaned out the idle circuit so much by turning the idle mixture screws in so far that it's way lean at idle which will cause a misfire.

The reason you hear the cam more now is because you leaned out the idle when you turned in the mixture screws. Also if you run more initial timing like DGC said it will smooth out the idle. It will also have alot better throttle response and get better fuel mileage and probably be faster. I know lopey idles sound cool but isn't more power what were after?

I've worked on 3 Edelbrock carbs that a buddy of mine had on different trucks and I allways had to adjust the mixture screws out 3 to 4 turns to get the most manifold vacuum and best idle.