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I have a 1973 351 Windsor that I recently installed into a 1977 Ford F-100 S.W.B.. I have had it rebuilt and bored .60 over and installed an Edelbrock Performer 351-W intake and placed an Edelbrock 600cfm carb on top. I also recently installed a K&N air filter assembly on it. One of my questions is what is the best timing that I should set the engine at to achieve good performance(and a little fuel economy if possible)? It tends to want to hesitate sometimes and wants to backfire slightly once in a while as a start it. It also takes me a couple of tries to get the engine running and not shut off on me when I first start it. It's kind of strange really because when it is really cold like around 40 degrees it will fire up and stay running on the first try. Every thing electrical on the engine is new.
Warm it up and take it and a 1/2" wrench out on the road. Find
a slight hill and really put a load on the motor (leave it in
high gear). Turn the distributor to advance the timing until
it pings. Listen carefully if you have loud exhaust. Turn it
back until the pinging goes away. Take it back home and shut the
motor off. Let it sit for a minute and try to restart the motor.
It should spin fine and start. If the starter struggles a little
turn the timing back a little more till the starter turns the motor easily. You can do this procedure with or without the
vacuum advance hose hooked up. I personally had a better running
engine with the timing set without it hooked up and then buying an adjustable vacuum advance and set it with the road procedure
described above.