test and tune... who does it?

[curtis73]

At WOT, the engine pings so much that I only ever did it once. Terrible; no power, sounded like hammers in the cylinders. You would think that there is almost no vacuum at WOT from a standstill, so evidently, the mechanical is just way too advanced.

The mechanical offers 22 total, not sure about the vacuum. The springs are tuned to have all advance in by 3000 rpms and I verified that with a timing light.

I tried it later and disconnected the vacuum advance entirely and got the same thing.

The 22 mechanical suggests 14-16 initial for a total of 36-38, but at 16 the car dies. I can get it to run by cranking the idle stop way up, but it sounds like junk and runs so rich that it burns my throat.

I've gone over everything. The carb has been apart three times, the ignition curve is spot on, the engine runs strong otherwise.

At this point, I'm running out of time. This car goes cross country sooner than I care to think about and I'm making things worse. What kind of shop am I looking for? Who does it? What do I look for in the yellow pages? Its very much not like me to take a car to a shop (I literally haven't done that for over 10 years) but I need it done now, done right, and just done.

[MagicRat]

I can understand your frustration.
IMHO your distributor is defective or not suitable for the application. I have encountered similar problems where supposedly high quality aftermarket performance parts have ended up being a bag of sh*t............immediatly what comes to mind is my experinence with expensive Crane electronic ignitions, those big yellow Accel coils and Moroso plug wires (all of which I bought new). I have had far better luck using properly set-up stock ignition parts.

I don't want to suggest your Mallory (?) distributor is poor quality, but I suspect its the source of your problems. Perhaps it is intended for a race-only application, perhaps it has an otherwise undetectable defect. Did you buy it new??
I have encountered troublesome performance parts that get sold off as used because someone encounteres just the same frustration and problems as you have.

My last suggestion is to throw in a regular, decent stock GM HEI distributor. So long as it works well, and is not worn out etc, give it a try.

Otherwise:
You would need a shop with experience in setting up race cars and custom performance cars.

Ask at the carb shop you went to.
Get out the yellow pages and call up some performance auto parts places and performance engine builders. Just very briefly and nicely explain your situation and ask if they know of anyone who can do this kind of work.

Anyone in the performance auto industry develops contacts and gets feedback about who is good and not.

[curtis73]

Thanks so much for all of your help. I take back some of the bad things I said about you