total timing is set at what rpm

stroked 340 said

You need an adjustable timing light..to set it as i do bring the motor up to 2500 rpms set the dial on 36,shoot the timing and turn the distributor til the timing mark lines up with 0, lock the dist. and your good to go been setting my timing like this for years,on my 416 and 360 no ping hesitation or any other issues of coarse i'm running an msd system,so no vacuum advance to deal with...34 degrees may be just fine for your motor run it and find out...

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Initial timing has a huge impact on your idle quality and the off idle performance of your engine. To ignore that leaves a lot of potential for improved driveability on the table not to mention it will make it easier to dial in the idle circuit of your carb. your method may work for your combination or you may not be getting all you could get from your engine.

If you follow the process I laided out on the first page of this thread then setting/checking the timing from then on becomes much less complicated than what you are doing. Just check adjust it at idle because you already have the total set in the distributor.