the timming should not be bouncing around on a locked dist

Bouncing around on the timiing could be chain or
Gear pull that dist. and inspect the gear.

Also check the dist.

I am still concerend not knowing what cam gear is on those
cams its a 50\50 chance on the choice you made with
going with the bronse dist gear.

Please pull and check that gear!

When you whack the throttle with it idling
does it pop?

Gerry

Mike i know its locked ight down but i didnt check the timing up on idle just at idle. and if i do snap the throttle it does not pop what so ever. Its sounds great with no load. When i load it up just doesnt sound right even when im going along. I will re time it as for the lean condition just not sure why that is. It was 93 octane that i was running i should have no problem with that right????

Depends on boost. When my distributor was bouncing around it was due to a hole in a piston. Good luck.

you should be safe with 93 if the comp is under 9 to 1 and boost under 8 at 30 degrees it should not ping at all does this motor have aluminum heads

sounds like a lean pop too but can't rule out other things like arcing ignition wires...... Ran into this problem a number of years ago..... Ignition wires were old and had a leaky valve cover which coated the wires with oil and caused a backfire thru the carb....

I wouldn't run it this way very long....you could pop hard enough and mess up the blower...

Not sure if Kurt still tunes his engines the same way but he used to run them rich....