This one's for the old school tuners in the group.

I've got an HEI dizzy on my 302 SBF. Vacuum and mechanical advance. Mechanical is 22 degrees per the manual, and when I tested the vacuum it starts at 3"Hg and stops at 7"Hg. I actually tuned it with my Mighty Vac and a 3mm allen, so it's adjustable. Regardless though, I don't know how many degrees it pulls or adds.

Anyway, I initially set my timing at 10 degrees during cranking. The car started, and everyone was happy. Now that I've got 150 miles on her I'm fiddling with the carb and the timing.

Setting the initial timing seems pretty straight forward. Pull the vacuum advance hose, plug the carb hole, increase idle, and turn dizzy to your initial setpoint. I started with 14 degrees. Knowing that my mechanical is 22 degrees, I'm expecting 36 degrees total.

Here's the problem. I revved up the engine while watching the timing. It parked at 30 degrees and never went higher. Granted I wasn't watching the tach, but after it stopped advancing I gave the throttle a blip from the engine bay and it still didn't go any higher.

Am I supposed to lock out the mechanical advance when setting initial timing? Or am I suppose to set the total timing to where I want (36 degrees), and then lock down the dizzy and adjust my idle after re-activating the mechanical and hooking up the vacuum?