I don't know what the compression ratio is.
The vacuum advance is disconnected for now. I've been reading about how it works and what it does. I'm going to be hooking it up soon to tinker with it. I will hook it up to manifold vacuum. How I understand it, vacuum advance should always be connected to manifold vacuum. I know many people disagree with this.
I'm thinking, hoping, that the engine will start easy with the timing at 15* the way it is now and then the vacuum will advance the timing after the engine starts causing the idle to get better.