questions on timing an engine

Total is what you see at 3000 rpm. The 10 degrees initial adds itself to the mechanical to become total @ 3000. The initial you change by turning the distributor and the total and the advance rate you can change by the springs and weights in the distributor. There are some guys here on FABO that really know how to modify distributors. I hope they post here. It sounds like you are close though. I would advance the initial to 13 or 14 as long as you don't have ping problems. I think the optimum total is 34 degrees. (Help me out here guys) tmm