Has anyone tried this?

Set your initial timing a little below where you think it should be, disconnect the vacuum advance hose from the distributor (cap the carburetor port) and connect it up to a Mighty-Vac with a hose that is long enough to reach into the vehicle. Then you can add timing advance with the Mighty-Vac until you find the point where it works the best (no pinging and more power). When you find the right spot, record the vacuum gauge reading of the Mighty-Vac. On the driveway pull that much vacuum on the Mighty-Vac and read the new timing with a timing light. Adjust timing accordingly.

bwhitejr

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'72 Duster (Performance 360)
'83 Ramcharger (Performance 318)
'80 TrailDuster (360)
'80 D-150 Truck (See Below)
CompCams 252S, Holley 390cfm, Offy manifold
Ported, Polished and Gasket Matched
P4286813 Springs,0.040 Overbore,
0.090 Shaved Head

Good idea, but you might have trouble holding a given engine speed and load to find the right vacuum point. Let us know how it works out!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

OR......Get a MSD timing control and a MSD6a and have up to 15 degrees of advance at the turn of the knob and also be able to retard the timing in case of a bad load of gas or high altitude.
HyperValiant

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1960 Hyper-Pac Valiant(rolling test-bed)
1963 Valiant V2OO(Son's summer project,- he just turned 15 )
1972 Valiant 4dr(Daughter Kelly's repair in progress)
1974 Valiant (v8) daughter Kelly's work in progress

For the price of msd6a + module you may be able to use megasquirt in ignition only mode.

How will you compensate for the added vaccum advance you will get once you hook the line back up?

The vacuum advance would be done in the traditional way. Hook it up and put it under load at highway speeds. Adjust the vacuum pot until it doesn't ping.

I saw a post on another site about someone that was going to build a distributor machine for home use. They hinted at electric drill and a tach. I got to thinking about it and decided it totally possible.

bwhitejr

_________________
'72 Duster (Performance 360)
'83 Ramcharger (Performance 318)
'80 TrailDuster (360)
'80 D-150 Truck (See Below)
CompCams 252S, Holley 390cfm, Offy manifold
Ported, Polished and Gasket Matched
P4286813 Springs,0.040 Overbore,
0.090 Shaved Head