School Me On Distributor Performance

I think the most helpful part of this thread has been the idle timing vs transition slot exposure. I had experimented with manifold vacuum to the V-can on the the 273. It did seem to help throttle response, but after the change, the car did sometimes want to stall when I stopped at a stop sign. I'll now pay close attention to the idle speed screw as I tune.

As far as the distributor machine, what exactly is the benefit for a modified engine? I see how it could be useful blueprinting a distributor to a factory curve, but if every car responds different, whoever was recurving the distributor would have to guess at would work with my car. If they aren't guessing, then that contradicts some advice given here, and that you can get a close curve based on the configuration.

Either way, I consider this a learning experience, and hope to do everything myself. Carburetor and distributor tuning is becoming a dying art. Much different that the usual diagnosis I do with a scan tool. And timing is one of the greatest mysteries as new vehicles have no timing adjustments available, in fact you're lucky if it even lists timing in the data stream.