Ahh..... I'm learning a lot. Thanks for all your help

Yea but it's not just surging. It won't go much over 2500 with the va hooked up. No matter where the timing is set. I can't just let it go without knowing why it's doing it. Maybe it won't help much but at least I'll know

Thanks for all your help rapidrobert. Probably won't be able to get to it till the weekend but I'll be sure to let you know. I'm gonna set the gap and get the new rotor. Hopefully that cures it.

Just out of curiousity what do the plugs look like ? I remember many years ago I had a 6 cylinder Maverick that did the same thing and everything I checked looked good. Then I pulled the plugs and they all had a good bit of carbon buildup on them. It would idle fine and run fine without the vacum advance hooked up and run bad when stepping on the gas with the vacum advance hooked up just like yours. I cleaned the plugs and it ran great Yea it seemed with all the carbon on them they would not handle the extra advance and would breakdown and miss. I know it sounds wierd as I really scratched my head on it but it is the truth. The plugs would not fire with all the advance when the vacum advance was hooked up and with all the carbon build up on the plugs. But like I said I cleaned or replaced the plugs (was a long time ago) and it ran good. Ron

The #1 and 3 plugs were slightly darker than the rest, but nothing out of the ordinary. It's all still fresh and new. Not even 100 miles on the motor.

How many degrees is the vacuum advance adding to the mechanic advance? To check at idle, see how many degrees are at initial without vacuum advance connected. Then connect vacuum advance to manifold vacuum (full vacuum) and recheck degrees. The difference is your vacuum advance degrees. Most vacuum advance cans have plenty of advance built into them since they are focused on economy. For the most part, you will not need it, especially since you no longer have a stock setup. If it runs strong, and power is smooth when accelerating moderately, leave it unplugged.

Focus on the mechanical advance seetings. First find the total advance the engine likes. Then determine what initial degree setting that the engine /cam runs best at idle or idle in gear if auto. Then play with mechanical advance limits and advance curve springs until you get then best acceleration. Stick a fork in it a call it done!
Ron

If you can get the engine to tolerate the additional advance at idle it will help with cooling (as long as it isn't too far advanced of course). At cruise it typically helps with mileage and also cooling (although at cruise this is less of an issue).

Have you hooked up a vacuum gauge? Do that so you can see what your vacuum can is seeing in terms of vacuum and behavior. Having unstable vacuum is not going to do you any favors at idle if attached to manifold vacuum.

Just wondering if you might not have multiple things fighting against one another, or the build is just such that vacuum advance cannot be integrated.

Well here is what I do know. It's a 318 with j heads. I had 120lbs in each cyl before the build. I know this cam is gonna bump that up but how much? It also has an air gap manifold with a 2" spacer. Headers and 2.5" exaust. I just have to mess with it some more. I didn't check to see how much it advanced it plugged into manifold vacuum. I checked for leaks with a can of carb cleaner but it's sealed tight. How do I check if it's leaking on the bottom of the intake? If my vacuum readings are low will that be an indication? I'm at 18 deg now with no va. It's running fine. Still gotta get that rotor and check my settings with the can plugged in.

Ok when it's at 10 deg initial it's at 30 when I plug in the can. Way too much. That's at idle

What you're describing aftar all is said and done is PHASING. For some stupid reason when the ignition fires, the rotor isn't pointing directly at a pole. This isn't too bad, until the vacuum advance kicks in. Now, as the vac advance increases, the rotor moves farther and farther away from the correct pole until it is closer to the next pole and the spark jumps there.

Look at this Ebay link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mopar-Modified-D...tr#ht_777wt_916 to see what the fix is.

I don't know if your particular distributor uses this kind of reluctor, but you need to move the reluctor with respect to the distributor shaft so the rotor is in a better place when it fires, and the vacuum advance doesn't move the rotor too far away from the correct pole.

Setting the gap is fine, making sure the wires are hooked up correctly is fine, but in the end it's phasing that's my interpretation of your problem.

R.

Yep gonna have to get that. Thanks for the link. I have it set up plugged off at 15deg for now.

Well the gap at the reluctor was way off. So I fixed that and bought the rotor from napa. Same results. Funny thing is it's backfiring out the exaust. I'm gonna try my old distributor tomorrow. There was a lot of slop at the rotor when it's bolted in. I'm gonna nail it tomorrow.

Bill have you made a mark on the dist rim or drilled a hole in the cap to see where you're phasing is at? On the rotor/shaft rotational slop is that lower shaft/intergear slot slop or very light springs (you're stretching the light springs when you twist the rotor) and with real light springs you cannot (easily) tell if you're into the springs or if it's the lower tang slop but lets see where you are at with RP first

I just put the old distributor back in and it works. The plate on the new distributor that moves the little transformer deal had a lot of slop. The new one didn't. I could move it up and down. Mostly up. The old one was solid as a rock. Still have some tuning to do but it really makes a difference.