So i put a high po EA-81 into my car, and i just can't seem to get it to run right, its been in for 3 months and i've put a total of 78 miles on it, and starting on monday i need to be driving 35 to work and back, so 70 miles a day, i vacuum tested it and it says i have late ignition timing i'm running around 14-16 "hg, but i'm running about 20 degrees already, its got a delta cam and the EA-71 pistons and a recurved distributor, so i think that they may be conflicting with each other, or i have somthing out of wack. any pearls of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Just as an experiment try tuning your engine with the vacuum gauge as your guide. Advance your distributor while the engine is running with the vacuum gauge hooked up until you get the highest steady vacuum reading possible. You can also turn your carb the same way. Shut it down, tighten the distributor hold down clamp and test drive. If it pings then back it off a little until pinging is gone. See if you can get more oomph out of it by tuning this way. If you still can't get it to run better/have more power then start checking the basics like firing order on the plug wires, condition of cap/rotor and you know the drill.

 

Bill

I would offer the same advice. When I first put cams into my ea82, it wanted around 25 or 26 degrees advance at idle. Below that, power SUCKED and it was kind of rough. Now that I've got an ea82 with cams and SPFI pistons, it wants a bit less timing, but almost as much. I'm not sure how your recurved disty would affect all of this, but it sounds to me like she just wants some more timing.