That is what is causing me the most confusion. The initial timing is set to 35 deg to get the 14" of vacuum. This is just idling in the garage...i haven't drove it with the timing that high. Anything lower than this and i get low vacuum readings. I wouldn't think the motor would run at all with the initial this high but it does. I checked to see if balancer had slipped but the timing mark is at zero with #1 at TDC.