Just a little miffed...

"Total advance" is a word often thrown around with different meaning.

Many racers talking about "total advance" for full power don't use vacuum, even if a can is on the dist, so they ASSUME we all mean "mechanical only"

I believe you have the idea

For troubleshooting, something like this I ALWAYS leave the vacuum disconnected, "one more thing" you can not worry about.

So yeah, get a max total of about 32-36, no more than 38, and AT LEAST 10 initial. This may not happen if you have a bone stock "smogger" distr. with a long slow advance. If you look on the bottom of the dist. advance piece (which holds the rotor) most will have a number stamped on the BOTTOM which indicates the amount of advance in DISTRIBUTOR degrees, which must be x2 to get crank degrees. IE 15* on the advance is way too much, being 30* at the crank.

I have a REALLY mild cam in my little 67, now in the 318, and It runs somewhere around 20* mechanical advance, with about 15-17 initial. So this give me 37, no vacuum, the vacuum being on ported vacuum