small block tune up

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ram45red

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Vacum advance went out on sons dart and by the time I paid the cost of a new one plus shipping it was just as cheap to get acomplete distributor. Tried to set timing with a light at 10 degrees before top dead center and car won't run without popping back through carb. Car is a mild 318 73 dodge dart swinger with factory electronic ignition. Air gap in distributor is a loose 8mm. Could air gap be my problem? I can't find my manual to look up specs. What are the correct specs for this small block mopar?
 
When you say mild, I take that to mean "not stock". That means it could require a good bit of initial timing to run properly. I would bump it up 2* at the time and try it. Sometimes they need close to 20* initial.
 
Car ran like a clock before. It is a stock 318 bottom end ,j heads,eldebrock performer intake and a holley 600carb with a 442 lift cam. Has about 40,000 miles on it since I built it. Not alot of miles on new plugs. New air and fuel filter. New distributer,rotor cap and button. I rechecked firing order and tried to use timing light then we just kept adjusting timing slowing trying to get it to run but ran out of time last night and today son is in school. Going to try again this afternoon. Is the gap supposed to be set at .008mm?
 
.008 mm? If it is equal to .035 inch, then yes.
 
.008 " is what I used to check it with. Feeler gauge has both inches and mm. It was a loose .008". I'll close it to a tight .008" and restart trying to set timing.
 
I would also double and triple check the plug wire orientation. It is very easy sometimes to get them a little out of whack.. 5 and 7 for instance can be easily mixed up.
 
what was the car doing,.. or not doing, that made you single out the vac advance?
 
Had just alittle misfire so we started looking it over and found vacum advance was not working so we put suction on vacum hose and it did not move just kept loosing vacum from pump.Before that car ran fine. Son drives it five days a week 50 miles one way to school.
 
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