2v carb total timing?

I have been fooling around with my distributor (I have both banks stuffed into one dstributor via Crane Xr700s) and noticed via the owners manual that a good operating distributor advances 16 degrees. 16 on the dist of course equates to 32 degrees on the engine. We generally time the engine at 7 degrees static which means we have about 39 degrees total timing at 6krpm granted the distributor is set up correctly.

Norwood was telling me the other day to set it at 10-12 degrees idle which means the engine is getting a whopping 42-44 degrees at 6krpm full advance. I have had my engine set at about 10 for a while and it runs very well with no hesitation or misfire/detonation at high rpm. This being the case, would it behoove us old school distributor using guys to have 34ish degrees (prior to last advance spring kicking in) at about 5krpm so we are not getting too much advance below say 4-5k rpm causing misfiring during the advance event?

 

I notice the out-of-the-box total timing setting for the electromotive set up is 37 degrees. According to the owners manuals, this is not even stock total timing. I have seen a couple people here noodling with their electromotive set ups with good results.

After a bit more fooling around last night, I notice the ragged edge of total timing is 42 degrees. I noticed a trace of detonation just over that, so dont go higher unless you are on race gas! Keep in mind that if someone is going to run this setting, make sure you are using premium fuel! I have mine set at 40-41 with the 34 degree mark coming up at about 4400rpm. Idle is right at 9-10 degrees. The advance curve is dead-on how I want it now, and I think I can finally sleep at night knowing it is just right now.

Now I think I am going to lose sleep on something entirely different. My carb jetting is currently 140mains F36 ET and 170 ac and I am still lean over 5500rpm. I am thinking of going F24 ET with 135 mains and 200ac. The F24s should correct that situation properly.