I don't remember if the gauge was there or not -I've only given this car one tune up since I bought it. Went to tune it today and the gauge is gone!? I bough a Mr Gasket replacement- so shiny . I'll try installing it in the morning.

question. I will pull the vac advance hose and plug it and cap the Vac advance. I understand from my trucks 350 that I should look for initial advance of around 4-6 degrees BTC. Then I should look to get 36 degrees in by 2500-3000 rpm? How do I monitor 36degrees? -t is certainly not marked on the timing gauge?

 

You need to remove the vacuum advance hose if it's hooked up to manifold vacuum. If your distributor is hooked to ported vacuum, there won't be vacuum at that hose at idle and you don't need to remove it. That "remove the vacuum hose before timing" stems back from the pre-emission days, when the distributor advance was hooked to full manifold vacuum. Yours probably isn't.
To be able to read your full advance, you'd need to install timing tape to the harmonic dampener.

 

camaro 69, good answer. I did not know the thing about removing the vac advance hose only if it was drawing full vacuum from the mani. Mine is on the driver's side port on the front of the 600 Edelbrock- Next time I tune my truck I wont bother removing/plugging the hose and adv vac can.

Is applying tape to the harmonic dampener doable with the engine in the car?

 

You do have the advance hooked up to the full manifold fitting on the carb, so you will want to pull the hose and plug it. You don't need to cap off the distributor. The passenger side fitting on the carb is ported vacuum (vacuum after the throttle blades open). If the engine runs good how it is, leave it there. If you're getting an off-idle stumble, try putting the vacuum advance on the other fitting.
You're going to need a little room to get the timing tape on, from under the engine might work better.
http://www.summitracing.com/search/?...g%20tape&dds=1