stevo1988

The balancer is brand new, its a Dorman made-in-china piece. the only chinese made part on this motor. But I am also trying to run 87 octane. The timing tab is part of the Spectre timing cover that is also brand new. it goes in place with two bolts on the driver side to view the timing mark. while the motor had no heads on i made sure that the markings were correct and they were.

while not running vacuum advance i am reading 8 deg advance at idle, but i cant tell what my total timing is at all, but anything more and i start to detonate (very little)
4.030" bore, 3.480" stroke, felpro head gasket, 67cc combustion chamber, 87 octane gas. I must have a loosey-goosey set of springs in my distributor (the distributor is stock and it was the same one that ran on the original bone-stock 305 that was in the car)

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

I would try some 89 and a step colder on the plug.

v8sten

iTrader: (5)

in the mid 80's the vacuum advance was replaced with a 5 pin module hei distributor and were computer controlled without a vacuum advance. the hei's before that had vacuum advance with 4 pin modules.

Agreed, 9.3/1 cr isnt a whole lot, but its enough to cause detonation

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

Yes, tbi years. Without a carb.

v8sten

iTrader: (5)

ive personally had 3 different 1985 monte carlo ss all with a computer controlled HEI without a vac adv. all had a 5 pin module and was carbureted. And I also had an 87 GMC Sierra with a 350 TBI and It had the smaller dist w/ an external coil with i believe the same 5 pin module

stevo1988

How might i find a re-curve kit for my distributor and possibly an HEI module? mine is a 4-pin. Its from a 1985 4bl carb 305
I dont know which springs im supposed to use for the mechanical advance and would a better HEI module be able to take the place of a vacum advance?

the motor it used to run was a chevy 305 with 58cc heads biggest valves and replaced the rubber cam with another hyd flat tappet cam that made .454" lift (cant remember all the specs)
i am wondering if this could affect the performance i am getting from my current ignition?

My plugs are AC Delco with i believe a .045" gap, what plug would you recommend?

stevo1988

I think i might purchase an HEI Tune-Up Kit from Pertronix.
Pertronix D8000 - Flame-Thrower Distributor Tune-Up Kit
Link from JEGS website
for $115 thats not too bad and maybe with the mechanical re-curve set and the adjustable vacuum advance unit I will be able to dial in my timing correctly. I am also planning to get a dial-back timing gun as well. And all the other goodies in this kit should spice up my ride quite a bit!
Has anyone had any experience with Pertronix? If so does anyone know if their HEI Kits are any good. I know it seems that MSD is the cat's *** these days but with my mild build would i see alot of benefits with the Pertronix kit?

bww3588

iTrader: (49)

I bought my brand new distributor from summit for 89 bucks...

stevo1988

Fixed the problem, My carb was running too lean at part-throttle. After putting in 2 sizes larger jets on the primaries the knocking went away completely