Timing Puzzler

[Creedmoor]

New to Mopars but have been wrenching on Fords/Old School Toyotas for many years. Just got a mostly stock 68 Barracuda with a 318 and wanted to check the timing. The book says I should set it at 2 and a half degrees AFTER TDC. Can this be right??? For my budddy's 71 Dart with a 318 the same book says 0 degrees BTDC. I've never heard of numbers like this! I'm used to 10 and 12 degrees BTDC. What should my timing be set at? While I'm at it, what's a good manual to have for a 68 Barracuda? The only Chilton's I can find doesn't cover v8 models - WTF?

Any help appreciated!

 

[67Dart273]

Yes, in the "good old" days of "smog" there were engines that called for timing of 2BTC, ZERO TDC, and 2 AFTER TDC

This does not mean that's where you should set it

One caveat--if the engine still has the original distributor, some of those had a very long, very slow timing curve, which means that if you just bump it up to 10 ore 15 it might OVER advance at high RPM. So you need to check and see what it's actually doing, and as old as that is, might not even have the original dist.

Also look for, and consider bypassing any vacuum controls in series with the vacuum advance. The great state of CA, before I left the U.S. Navy down there, was forcing people to add bright green thermostatic vacuum controls to their engines.

 

[Creedmoor]

It appears to be the original all stock dizzy-no added on vacuum crap. I am (in the next few days) going to be dropping in the Pertronix electronic ignition kit. Everything in this kit goes under the cap - so no box to deal with. All it really does is replace the points with a Hall effect trigger. Easy swap. Any advice on what I would want to set my advance to with this setup?