questions on timing an engine

I'm getting the feeling you have read nothing of what some of us posted. When crackedback says something, you might listen.

So I'm gonna say this just one more time

The RIGHT way to do this is either recurve your distributor to a more performance oriented curve, or buy an aftermarket performance distributor.

And LOSE the infatuation with 3000 RPM. YOU NEED to rev the engine up way past this to BE SURE it is not continuing to advance

So set the timing at 3K and at 35* if that's what kicks your cookie, then WATCHING the marks, REV it way up there to be sure it is "all in"

Then idle the engine WAY down and see what the idle/ initial timing ENDS UP to be. THIS WILL TELL YOU if the dist. curve is "way too long" or not. That is, if you set high RPM at 35, and intitial ends up at 0-5*, then you have a long curve, and need to recurve the dist. for best performance.

You need to BUY a spring kit so you can SPEED UP the rate at which the advance operates.

OR you need to buy an aftermarket dist. which is already setup "to start" and probably has an ADJUSTABLE advance mechanism.

HERE is an article on one type of aftermarket, adjustable advance

http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/elec/29.html

Here's a drawing of one type of adjustable advance:



And LOSE the idea that a dial up light is accurate. It might be. It might not be. I've had enough bad experiences with 'em that I don't use 'em.