When I rechecked the timing yesterday (total mileage was about 140) I found the initial set at around 6 which is about where I set it to begin with. I jacked that up to about 14/15 initial, with the same 12 degrees added by that adjustable Accell dist vac pod, but there was no difference to be seen as far as temps were concerned. Big let down.
After racking my brain on all the possibilities of what could be causing the engine to get hot slowly but surely I was down to two possibilities, the timing and mixture settings.
I think the car 'feels' a bit snappier with the extra 8 or so degrees but nothing monumental, just a little bit better. I knew that retarded timing exposes more of the combustion to the cylinder walls and can cause heating problems but in the end, it's like it had no effect at all.
As for the potential compression problems, after raising the timing yesterday I tried to enduce some 'rattle' out of it by short shifting and giving it a bit more throttle and thought it sounded okay but yesterdays temps were only in the high 60's and there really wasn't much of a load on the car with only me in it and driving casually on a flat road so I may back off the initial from the current 14/15 down to 10 or 12 just to be safe side since the extra timing didn't perform that 'miracle' I was hoping for.
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