Help me find the umph in my 360

just because you use the 4 degree advance slot it could still be retarded or advanced to much

tune the combo as it is
verify tach spedo kickdown and gear ratio go from there
I thought cam timing and disty timing aren't related. So if say the cam is set to retarded do i have to just keep advancing the disty until i find the sweet spot. i thought it was always best to get cam timing right first before worrying about disty timing. Am i wrong.