Just after a bit of advice.Long story short I bought a second hand engine for my 68.Before I put it in I swapped the intake manifold from my old engine and noticed it has had some head porting done and roller tip rockers fitted.I took the pan off to fix a dent and it has a mains stud kit fitted,a windage tray and also has (according to a couple of mates) forged pistons. I don't know the cam specs,compresion or anything else about it.
I have the initial timing set at 8*.I am unsure of the total.Would that be enough?I run it on 95 octane and it does go really well.
I'm aware that it is hard to tell with the lack of info I have but I'm sure there are people on here that know a lot more than I do.
Thanks in advance

 

There is no "by the book" timing setting to follow for a modified engine, so don't worry about what any repair manual may say. Where you have it is a good place to start. Your engine is going to tell you how far advanced it's going to allow you to go, based on compression ratio, fuel octane, and total timing of the distributor. Too far advanced and the engine will ping (marbles in the cylinder sound). Start where you have it, then take the car out and listen to the engine when you put it under a load. If it gives you no complaints (pinging) then bump it up to 10 and take it out again. Once a setting makes the engine start to ping, back the timing off to the previous setting and call it good. Or, an old school way of setting timing without the need for a timing light, provided you have an automatic trans, is to have a helper in the drivers seat brake-torquing the engine; giving it gas while standing hard on the brake pedal. Practice doing that before you step near the car, and stay to the side, not in front. While brake torquing, which is putting the engine under a load as described above by the way, advance the timing until you hear the engine start to ping, then back timing off slowly until the sound goes away. You now have the engine set to optimum advance, or at least the max the engine is going to want to handle. This only takes a few seconds to do, and it does no harm to anything....unless your buddy lets up on the brake pedal.

 

Thanks for that.It doesn't ping so I might advance it a bit more and see how it goes.