Here's one for ya...

Was checking my ignition to see what my initial and total advance was for mechanical advance alone and with with vacuum. (360 LA)

Idling @ 800 my initial was 16* with vacuum disconnected. When I slowly began to raise the RPM the timing went down, yes down, to 10*. Then as the RPM continued up it got to a total of 20* at about 3500. I thought I was seeing things so I kept checking it and it did the same thing every time. At least that was consistent.

When I added the vacuum the total was over 40* at about 4000 but the RPM had a big problem with going higher as the ignition would breakup. Could hear it, see it with the timing light, and shook the whole car pretty bad.

Not sure what's going on but I've been fighting gremlins on this thing for a while now and have thrown in the towel on this ignition system. The gentleman I bought it from said he had problems too and eventually gave up. I thought I could find the problem(s) with enough time but enough is enough...I'm done. System is a stock Mopar electronic distributor triggering an 8 pin HEI module and coil. I decided on a Petronix III distributor as the module is internal and has a built in rev limiter. Had to get a coil too to match the module.

Not really asking any question here but if you have any input on what was going on I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!