I found the air cleaner problem was a clearance issue. It just barley touches, but just enough to make the idle jump up. I'm about to set the timing. Any sugestions? I heard 12 BTDC is a pretty comfortable area
Good deal on finding the idle problem. The cam and compression ratio are mostly what dictates the timing curve. If those are unknown's, which it sounds like yours are your best bet is to hook the vacuum gauge up and at an idle slowly advance the timing until you find the highest vacuum reading. If it's much cam at all it'll probably take at least 16 degrees timing at idle. Once you find what it likes at idle you have to curve the centrifugal advance so it doesn't advance past about 34 degrees max. If it's a factory distributor that requires welding up the advance slots. Here's a link to an article on Hot Rod that shows the whole deal
BTW: I have ran across a couple engines that didn't have a lot of cam yet liked a bunch of idle advance so don't be surprised if it likes something on the order of 20-24 degrees at idle for max idle vacuum. The only thing you have to watch out for there is too much idle advance may cause kicking back on the starter when it's hot so sometimes you have to limit it to a little less that optimal for it to start good. I generally find the springs Mgunner mentioned do a good job on regulating the timing curve
