[78w72]

I think hes referring to "power timing".. but to do that the car needs to be driven under slight load to hear when slight pinging just starts, then you back it off ~2°... you dont just spin the dist while idling until you hear a noise/detonation. reading about things on the internet but not fully understanding them can create lots of problems.

Or if you are a facbook'er, theres one guy out there with a stage 3 super duper this or that, telling everyone to run full initial timing locked out, claims setting the initial to something crazy like 34° is far better than factory initial timing settings & that GM and other brand engineers didnt know what they were doing and caused excessive emissions & poor gas mileage with factory timing specs...

[Formulajones]

That still sounds like a terrible way to do it lol.

There is some truth to the last statement, (minus the lockout idea) as the OEM's weren't too concerned about performance and mileage back then, and their timing curves were slow and very conservative. They were only worried about getting the car past the warranty period.

For sure factory settings aren't going to be optimal, and of course too aggressive doesn't end well either, but there is absolutely performance, and mileage to be found with timing curves if setup properly.