jkoester122

okay need help. first let me tell you about the motor... olds 455 eldebrock rpm performer aluminum heads, eldebrock intake, eldebrock 750 cfm carb
comp hydraulic roller cam. that's pretty much all i know. i wasn't the one to rebuild engine. ever since some guy realized that i didn't have the vacuum advance hooked up he ran a line from the distributor to the from of my carb which bumped up the idle. i also realized i have and olds 350 timing tab that we got off form a 68 cutlass/ but besides the point when i have partial throttle i am hearing a pinging noise. what i think is that the weights in the distributor are too light and are slinging the advance out way to quick. so we put timing in mikddle of tab(dont know what degree) and pulled of the vacummn advacne and capped the carburatur. From this point on i test drove it and it seemed to be fine but got hot real quick on me. Question is which way do i turn timing to make it run cooler. do i retard or advance it and without the vacuum advance hooked up the pinging noise went away.
i need a expert on this who has experienced this before.

also added a fuel pressure gauge was reading 3lbs so i called eldebrock for my car and they said normal operating was 4.5lbs to 6 so i got a fuel pump that now puts out 6lbs and doesn't starve itself from gas anymore, any help please, thank you

oldcutlass

Try declining your timing by 1 or 2 degrees at a time until the pinging goes away. Make sure your not running to lean on the carb!

BlackGold

Retarded timing usually makes an engine run a little hot, but too much advance can do the same.

First step: Find top dead center on #1 and check your timing tab and mark on the balancer. You're lost without knowing what's zero.

Second step: Measure the advance curve on your distributor. You can do this by hand or take the distributor to a local speed shop with a Sun machine. Measure not only the curve of the weights but also what the vacuum advance can does with different levels of vacuum.