total timing reading accurate with no load?

adam83 said

Yes this is all with the vacuum advance plugged.

Well taking the distributor back out is easy I'm not worried about that, but I don't know if this brand of distributor has the same internal mechanisms as a Mopar distributor, not sure if that plate would work. It's a World Power Systems DST3890. Ill pull it off and check it out.

Am I correct though that the timing should any more move once the mechanical advance is reached? Or will it continue to rise a little with engine room?

Click to expand...

If this is your distributor, WORLD POWER SYSTEMS DST3890 Distributor | RockAuto then it appears that yes, it is a Mopar style unit and the limiter plate will work. Yes, the advance will "eventually" stop advancing, but in order to acheive a good, decent, performance curve, you will need to limit it further, based on how much initial timing you have.

One example I can give is, most times, stock compression small blocks can take "around" 20* initial and "about" 34* total. In other words, 14* mechanical advance. A good place to start would be 12* initial and bump it in increments of 2*. As long as the engine continues to pick up RPM as you advance the initial timing, the engine is tellin you it wants more. When you find the point at which advancing initial timing makes no difference in RPM, that's the most initial it wants. Then you can install the limiting plate accordingly. As long as you let the engine tell you how much initial timing it wants.