Ok, sorry for the delay, got mildly frustrated saturday afternoon and since it was my birthday i decided to take a break from the car and go have some fun with my kids. I bought a new starter (which was wrong, then i returned it) got a new 2 gauge power wire to run and got the distributor back close enough to get the car turned over. I got the timing at 17* btdc and she cranked up fairly smooth (need to shim the starter a little more) and dialed in the distributor to 17 ( i had a church function so i wasn't able to tweak any settings) but it ran great, had a mild rattle noise on real hard acceleration so i'll need to turn back timing a hair, no dieseling either.

**The carb is a holley 1850, Previous owner completely removed the choke plate.

**also, i added stp oil treatment and well... the smoke went away completely.

 

You're on the right track, but why did you set the base timing at 17 (better than 29 at least)? Yeah, you're still going to have pinging at that setting.

 

the more i retard the timing, the rougher the idle seems to get, then i have to turn up the curb idle to smooth it out and then the dieseling occurs (I'm running 93 octane with octane booster). I will retard the timing back more, just didn't have time to Sunday.

*ignorance be known, i'm not well versed in the vacuum operation of the vehicle (what the locations are called, whether or not it's ported, etc. I will be reading up more on this today. I do know one of the lines going to carb has vacuum anytime the engine is running (if that helps). sorry for the lack of knowledge.

 

At the bare minimum, if auto trans equipped, the full time vacuum should go to the trans vac modulator as this determines for the trans upshifts and downshifts via pedal position.

As said, right direction, need alittle less timing, say around 10°-12° BTDC with no vacuum hose connected to dist and ensure timing light is dialed to zero degrees if a new style t/light. You might borrow another t/light just to compare yours to the other light.

An older analog light would be good for comparision. If analog light shows differently, believe it, then use the difference with the digitial light, example: if analog shows 0° and digitial shows 5° ATDC, then algebrically add -5° from whatever reading the digitial shows 5° - (-5°) = 0° same as the analog light.

 

sadly i did also notice yesterday that the cylinder heads are leaking oil in parts. I guess even if it's rebuilt it is fairly old.

 

disregard this post if you read it before... I shimmed the starter way too much... pulled all the shims out and she starts good, idles good, burns the tires in first and second gear, not clicking or knocking at all. and no dieseling! thankyou everyone for the advice and help.