400 ignition timing advice

since completing my overdue valve check/adjustment on my '78 400a in the spring of this my car has run there or thereabouts BUT something has bugged me ever since. i can't get my 1-6 bank ( right side ) to run as smooth as my 7-12 bank. while my 7-12 bank is smooth as silk out the tail pipes my 1-6 bank exhaust has small 'pop','pop','pop',pops'....you know what i mean ? hours of carb adjustments have yeilded little or no change so i'm back to ignition timing. i won't bother explaining the numerous places i've attempted to set it to this point but could someone PLEASE advise me on where to set my timing at idle , 3250 rpm and where it should be at 5000rpm as the manual specifies. by the way, i only have a single set of points per distributor. they are new, and the distributors were serviced but maybe i should of had them set up on an actual test bench ? damn...
thanks in advance... : )

brett

 

yup. got spark on all six. varified and reverified. set both sides to 11 degrees advance at idle. new points on the troublesome 1-6 bank. car idles at 850rpm and hauls ass like never before but no change in smoothness or lack thereof on the 1-6. small 'pops' as opposed to the 7-12, which seems impossibly smooth by comparison ( once the car is warm ). maybe not timing after all...
let the goose chase begin...

 

Thanks Simon and Paul, i'll start looking for induction and vacuum ( 1-6 side) leaks.

brett