Engine timing, vacuum advance?

[page454]

I have a question for for everyone. I am curious if I should run vacuum advance on my 355 chevy engine that I am currently installing in my 88 Donzi Regazza 21'? I notice that most marine distributors don't run them. The engine is just a freshened 350 Chevy with a mild cam, aluminum intake manifold and Edelbrock 600 cfm carb. Also I planned on setting the initial timing between 8-12 advanced, does this sound like a good starting point? Thanks in advance.

[Morgan's Cloud]

Marine engines use mechanical advance/retard mechanisms to ensure the 'spark proof' qualities needed to be a marine engine are met.

[oldandtired]

Marine engines don't really benefit from a vaccum advance setup because they are never operated at mid to high rpm with no load. It's really just an efficiency enhancement for part throttle operation. I don't know where you should set your base timing. Use a marine distributor for the reason posted above.

Rene

[MOP]

I would run 8-10 during break in, you need to check your pack to see what the total timing is. Total timing is way more important then base, at the loads a marine engine runs at detonation can screw things up in a hurry. During break in I would hold top time to 30, after about 10 hours I would bump it to 32. Quite a few guys run a tad higher but are pretty careful.

Phil

[page454]

OK, marine distributor and around 30 to 32 degrees total advance. Thanks.