[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by TRADERMIKE 2012

I have saved lots of information on tuning the Engine, there must be at least 3 or 4 that sound true. Am I really, by the seat of my pants, going to feel or see a difference in performance without having to test and tune on a race track?

Absolutely. To explain further without going into writing a book, Tuning, especially the timing curve, is felt more in the drivability aspect and not so much at the track. At the track, really total timing is all that matters there, so if you're looking for an optimal total timing number, then yes that's one way to find it.

The rest of the timing curve really comes into play with drivability, how well the car behaves in traffic, on the highway, hot starts, gas mileage, engine temps, part throttle drivability, including light throttle tip in and low speed idle conditions will all be affected with how you set up initial timing, the curve, the vacuum advance and how and where it comes in, and how much. Playing with these areas and finding what the engine really likes will give you excellent results in all those catagories. Makes the difference between a car that runs okay and gets from A to B to a car that runs absolutely fantastic. Without experimenting with this you'll never really know the difference.

For sure the factory settings are a bit lazy and meant to allow the car to perform well enough to satisfy, while at the same time complying with even a small amount of emissions compliance, but there is absolutely a lot left on the table in the drivability department.
Your engine, since it's not technically stock and has a RAIV camshaft, would most certainly respond well to a custom timing curve, as well as more initial. 6 degrees is really low and not optimal at all for a combination like that. That might work on grandmas 350 2 barrel, (even for that it's low) but not ideal for a camshaft with around 80 degrees of overlap.