Thank you so much for the help so far, right team..... I got an FBO plate and an old snap on timing light on your advice.
Just a reminder - Bone stocker 360 with an inlet and a Holley 4 barrel, has decent compression and doesn't smoke or use oil.
I started this late in the day so didn't get that far:
First off, with the vac advance plugged, I advanced the dizzy until the rpm levels off - An attempt to find out how much initial it 'wants'. It was like 32BTDC.... had another go and settled for 26 BTDC initial. And it restarted ok... but that seemed extreme for a stock engine?
So I thought 22 was more appropriate for stock (was that a mistake?).
Next up I thought 22 initial + the 14 slots on the FBO plate would make 36 total advance. So we fitted the FBO limiter plate on the 14 slots and set it to 22 initial BTDC. Plugged the vac advance can back in and ran the engine at 3K rpm. We got 42 degrees of total timing. Unfortunately I ran out of time/day light...
Question - Is the recommend total mechanical advance of 34 degrees with or without the vac can plugged in? (hopefully without, otherwise I have done something wrong?)
Is my scenario above fine? It does not seem to be pinking although it was not a thorough test drive.
Any thoughts appreciated
