privateer

My Vacuum hose was disconnected and plugged while timming. The vacuum hose was plugged into the steel tubing network under the manifold. I noticed that there is no suction from the steel tubing when I pulled the hose off. After I set the timing I connected the Vacuum advance directly into a barb on the top of the passenger side of the intake manifold which did have suction. This did not seem to change the engines performance any. So the Vacuum advance on the distributor may not be working, I'll need to test it. This is not a feedback carb but it still has a ton of vacuum hoses and plumbing much of which is probably connected wrong or parts not working. I wonder if I strip all but the Vacuum for distributor and choke & brake booster what adverse affects it would cause, runs poorly as is now.

When I set timing on my 1984 4wd gl (ea81) to factory setting the engne is slow revving. It runs much better when I set the timing by ear. I was wondering how much advance I can get away with before getting into the danger zone. I don't want to be the cause of engine failure. Does anyone have experiance running higher advancement. My engine has high milage so the compression is probably down a little which should help prevent predetonation.