[mr0077]

Michael, I'm not sure I follow what you're explaining...When I started this thread, I had just got my car on the road, and this was my first FE. I ran as high as 20 initial, 38-40 total, and it ran and started just fine (I had 10.5, now have 10.7 compression, Edelbrock heads with a 280 degree cam)...I ran for awhile at 12 initial and 36 total, seemed to do fine, but right now I'm trying 16 initial and 40 total...running a wee bit lean but NO detonation or rattle, and seems to be much more responsive with better power at these current settings. Advancing the timing causes the idle speed to go up, so I idled it down to something reasonable (850 or so), to avoid run-on. Have you been resetting your idle speed as you advanced your timing? Your dieseling could be from the higher idle speed you would get with advancing the timing, or the combo of the bad gas and the idle speed. I'm running 93 octane down here in Houston.