Performance timing

dazedand confused said

Yep the distributor is in the 318 in my D150 truck. It has a smooth idle in park and in drive . It idles in park at 1000 rpm And in drive at 650 rpm . I have a 600 cfm edelbrock carb on the motor. It used to fry the tires with the worn out 360 it had when power breaking it but it had walmart wranglers A/t now it has highperformance street tires from big O now it just axles winds or wheel hopes? Im planning on getting rid of the thin 4 leaf springs and swapping to 3/4 ton thick 6 leaf springs

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Easy enough
Set the dial on your timing light to "0"
With the vacuum advance plugged set the timing at idle, around 700 rpm, to 15 degrees.
Drive it, if it does not ping, advance the timing at idle another 2 degrees = 17 degrees
Keep doing this unit you hear the engine ping under load, this is known as detonation = bad.
Back the timing down 2 degrees - no ping - lock the distributor down and forget it.
Try to run the same fuel
This is the most simple way to time your engine. There are different more advance methods but this will get you down the road, just dont let it ping under load.
Make sure you reconnect your vacuum advance,