Setting timing ? First time doing it.

He doesn't need timing tape for a stock slant six. Besides, there's no room for tape since the inertia ring is JUST a pulley with no flat for the tape to stick to. Not that it would stick anyway, because timing tape nowadays is cheesy bullshit. I have my stock 170 set at 12* BTDC and it runs fantastic. The reason for the 2* horse crap is so it will pass emissions testing. Since the timing is so retarded, it's not burning all the fuel it could and not producing a lot of hydrocarbons at the tail pipe. I tried mine at 15* and it ran a little rough, so I backed it off to 12* and it runs great. Try to put all the initial timing in it you can because it will run good, start better and get better mileage. No need to worry about total timing, because a slant six has such low compression detonation or spark knock will never be an issue. So try setting it about 12*. Once you get it there, you might need to idle it back down, but that's easy.