A thought is that I didnt see any posts on what type of gas to use. Which in the case of doing performance upgrades would require generally the best gas you could buy. In the case of most posts I have read pinging and hesatation and rought running theres been that point of not good enough octane and timing is advanced to much. Edelbrocks (sp) and carter AFB carb are a general set and jet carb for so many diff engines its best to tune the carb too. Havent heard alot of good on the edel carbs and alot good on the carter AFB. An other good ad on to each carb is spring loaded needle and seat kits, they really help.

 

There are a number of posts here that discuss gasoline and fuel requirements. There is also a whole forum here on Fuels and Lubricants.

 

Generally speaking use just enough octane to prevent pinging. too much can actually reduce power. The 351m is pretty resistant to pinging, the 400 suseptable.

 

My 400 used to ping quite a bit on 87 octane fuel with 10 degrees of timing. I retarded it back to about 5 and it still makes good power and runs fine. The dish piston really kills the quench, which is what causes the pinging even though the compression is already low enough.

 

don't affect quench when using open chamber heads.

 

There is no quench with open chamber heads.