The new distributor should help a lot, the first one was set-up to give 30-32 degrees total at 10-12 initial. Currently we are seeing 36+ at 2800 RPM... way to much, especially with the high stall converter (4000 stall and from what Mark describes, the converter is getting every bit of that) Bottom line, it's over-advanced right when you hit the throttle.

The distributor I just set him is much shorter on mechanical advance (12 degrees) and I slowed down the rate a little... I bet that will fix most of the pinging issues, as long as some race fuel is mixed-in. Good thing this is "mostly" a race car.

We knew going into this build that the cam is too small for the compression combo. but we were working with an engine and a pile of parts Mark already had. The decision was to get a running engine into the car so the rest of the project could progress, rather then start over and build a motor from scratch.

By running the lash down as tight as possible, some careful distributor recurving and the "right" mix of race fuel, we should get the car down the 1/4 mile with-out melting the pistons out of it.

In hind sight, I should have used a thicker head gasket on this engine... we used a .020 shim gasket just to make sure it sealed... if we decide to spray it.
DD

Lou beat me to it... 9.5 is about right for that cam.
DD