Too much cam?

67 Dart, 360 with roughly 9:1 compression, magnum heads, air gap intake, 670 Street Avenger carb, 3.23 gears, 727 and stock converter in a 67 Dart.

Last year I swapped out the Edelbrock cam (smaller of the 2 they offer) and put in a Comp Cams 270H (specs .470 lift, .501 with the 1.6 magnum rockers, 224 degrees duration @.050, rpm range 1800 to 5800). The cam was installed 2 degrees advanced. I have an FBO ignition and it calls for 16 degrees initial timing. It idles at 650 rpm's with 15 lbs of vacuum. I did the power valve, secondary spring and different jet experimentation with no real change.

Set anywhere from 12 to 20 degrees I get a bad hesitation off the line, once thru the hesitation (only momentary hesitation), it is real strong. I know the stock converter is probably contributing to the situation. I bumped the initial a degree at a time and at 25 degrees it lost the hesitation and traction! Also, I swapped in the original Mopar Performance electronic distributor and it behaved the same 12 to 16 degrees initial).

I'm inclined to think it's to much cam. Could another possibility be that I actually retarded rather that advanced the cam? I didn't degree it, I was using my 70's no proper tool logic when the Direct Connection book said advance, advance and advance.

It's pretty much a street car. Ran across a guy who had the same cam in his engine and just loved the way it sounded. Then I came across a great deal on the cam. I know, neither of those are a way to choose a cam.

I guess my question is, do I pull the front off and check the cam timing to make sure it isn't retarded rather than advance or is it a moot point? If need be, I will change out to a different cam. Heck, I've been eyeballing the Hughes Whiplash cams, but I ain't gonna pull the heads off to get the valve guides shortened for clearance...that 105 ft lbs of torque on those heads almost destroyed my 50+ year old body.

Thanks and sorry for rambling on.