I have a 78 Camaro with 88 350. I don't understand why my motor diesels after I have it retarted as it will go. The best I can do is retard to sound like crap (apears to be 4 to 8 after top dead center) I used the throttle idle scew to bring her back to 1000 rpm. I can't tell what affect my adjusting of the idle set screws have on the edelbrock 600 or 650 cfm carb. Running electric fuel pump because there are no provisions for mech. As far as I can tell she is getting enough fuel. Oh and I did verify TDC by finger test in sparkplug 1 hole, rotor is pointing at cylinder 1.
Please help. I can't do to much fun stuff to it because I'm in California and I gotta smog it so basic tips will do.

 

Your engine diesels because you have the timing so far retarded. That causes the engine to run hotter, and any carbon deposits you may have in the combustion chamber can turn into glowing hot spots to ignite the fuel. Why do you have it so far retarded anyway? If that's what it says in a repair manual you're reading, keep in mind that book specs are a guide, not bible. Start at about 4 degrees before TDC and go from there. Drive the car and listen for the engine to ping (marbles in the cylinder) while under a load. If nothing, advance the timing another 2 degrees and drive it again. As soon as you get pinging, back the timing off to the previous setting. Maximum advance = maximum power = maximum performance.

 

I had it retarted because my father said it diesels when its to advanced. He has been repairing his big rig so much that i think he flip flopped it.
So the tab I have on timeing cover is 0 and up towards 12 o clock. Is it ATDC OR BTDC towards 12.
I had it at 4 on that tab and it dieseled.

 

0 is TDC. Standing in front of the car and looking at the engine, the crank is rotating clockwise. To the left of 0 is BTDC, to the right of 0 is ATDC. You want your timing mark to be left of 0 (advanced).

 

Ok, got it. My dad should no better. He is letting me drive his 69 C/20 with 350, modestly modifed. I was gonna mirror his but he says he has wa RV cam. Who knows if its timed different at the cam. He has it 12 btdc but his rotor points at cylinder 2. He says otherwise but my book shows late 60's 350 in camaros doing that and i found an online fireing order showing up to 69 350s in vettes pointing at 2.

Nice anti ford mottos at end of post ;-)

 

Since we're talking Chevy here, I won't get into other brands being the same as well. But piston #1 at TDC compression stroke is the reference point across the board. All Chevy V8 (small and big block) firing order is the same too. There are a couple of other variables that can make it easy to mix things up; not all harmonic dampeners have the timing notch in the same clocked position. Some were different for certain applications, as well as timing tabs being mounted in a different spot to match. Slap on a wrong dampener or timing tab, and you'll be chasing your tail trying to get the timing set right. I'm curious to see what you found about the rotor to #2 reference. That's not the way you set up static initial timing, no matter the year.