400 question

You'll want to play with your distributor curve. Remember to set it up first with the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged at the intake. I set mine for as much initial timing as it would take while still being able to restart hot. With a smogger 440 with a lunati voodoo 60303 cam and 440source heads it liked near 20* at idle and I set it for 38* total in by 2500rpm. Not too much longer after that it wouldn't want to restart hot, I thought I had too much initial timing(turned out to actually be a charging system issue), so I backed the initial timing back to around 15. Could not get rid of that initial launch bog until I figured out the problem was my charging system, not too much timing. Bumped the timing back up and the bog was gone again.

With a stock cam and heads, you won't need as much timing as mine did, but I would still start by figuring out how much initial it will tolerate, then dial in your total from there.

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X 2. in order: initial w vac gauge method, w that figure in hand shorten the slots to get 35 (SB) w vac adv unhooked/plugged. Springs-toss the heavy one w the long loop & start by adding one of the very light ones in the MP cellophane pkg & want to stay just under the pinging point at WOT up thru the gears on your hottest/driest day no matter where (RPM) that makes the slots max out at. then plug in the vac adv & want (A) the most adv coming in (B) as fast as it can (2 adjustments) WO pinging at steady PART throttle (high vacuum) at an RPM at or above where the slots (mech adv) is all in. EDIT it's a BB so 36-38 for total (vac adv capped)

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Thanks, I'll play with the timing this weekend and see if it helps. When you say shorten the slots do you mean the slots for the advance in the distributer?