advanced timing school please

i had the car running well with no kickback or pinging at 8*advanced. that means i should be looking for a dist. with 26ish initial to get me up around the 34 mark where i should be... and all that with no vac advance ? and then add my vac on top of that to be up around 50something, hopefully.

upon driving the car with this dist... i step on the gas its like the car just has no go to it. it revs without any problem sitting in the driveway, but out on the street it just seems to die out and it has no power at all. am i on the right track with looking into the mechanical advance?

Do you have to smog test the car? No kidding it will run like crap with 8* initial. I don't even set stock 318's with initial timing that low.

Advance the distributor until the car kicks back when starting while hot. Back it off a little. That's where the timing could be set at idle. Simple test, give the distributor a small twist CCW, if the engine picks up RPM, it wants the timing.

Search hillbilly timing tape. Never buy a timing tape again!