Putting a fresh sbc in my buddy's truck. It's nothing fancy, stock heads, quadrajet, stock manifolds, etc.

What's a reasonable base and total timing for this thing? (vacuum advance distributor, not HEI)

 

i would start at 10 degrees advanced, and slightly advance the timing and adjust the carb until you get ping at full power, then back off a bit.
then shut off and test for hot start.
if it still turns over good hot, i would leave it.

this will give you a good combination of power and fuel mileage

 

If it is not subject to emissions testing, dont worry so much about idle timing. Unless you have the advance specs for the distributor you are using, guessing is not a good way to go. Delco distributors use mechanical advance as primary and vacuum to provide extra economy at small throttle openings (high manifold vacuum or low manifold pressure, however you want to think about it).

Set it near TDC to get it started. The important thing is maximum mechanical advance. I use the strobe timing light to set the maximum advance to 28-30 degrees BTDC and let the idle timing fall where it may. All gasoline engines will run well at that maximum advance.

 

Thanks guys- got it started yesterday and it seems to like 10 degrees base timing.