Bah! There's no resistance my friend! I didn't understand the 6° advance that it needed. Now I do. I agree with you and appreciate that you've stuck with it so I get it now. You and Tom seem to be saying to opposite things. Tom says just put it in, but I don't agree with that. I agree with you about getting it there with the 6 deg it should have.
If I could, I'd be buying a few of you cases of beer! Tom probably doesn't want to see my face anymore, and I can't blame him lol, but I want to buy him a few rounds.

There are folks who toss a motor together and think they are doing a great job just because they used a torque wrench on the balancer bolt.

You aren't one of those guys and I applaud your eagerness to learn how to do it right.

And 6 degrees on a cam will make a measurable difference in your engines vacuum at idle, your cranking compression psi, your torque peaks rpm, and a host of other metrics.

Is it worth messing with?
If the motor was already installed in the boat, totally buttoned up, all accessories on it. Exhaust manifolds, plumbing, and all of it crammed up against a bulkhead that you can barely fit your arm into? Most folks would say NO.

But with a motor on the stand with no heads?
It's a no brainer..

You should be installing/degreeing to desired ILC spec. Than verify other specs from there.

Thanks mcollinstn!
Tom, Not sure what you said before you deleted your message, but I hope you don't think I'm busting your balls. You've been a big help and I appreciate it. Just a difference of opinions.

Finally was able to get back to the motor. I pulled it back apart and corrected the cam install. ICL is now 108.75° Close enough for me.
I'll post all my measurements, but before I do I want to mention the factory timing set. Before I pulled the timing cover off I put the motor at TDC. The Summit set was still at 2° advanced like I had installed it. This is actually ~0°. I didn't move anything and installed the factory set off another L29 Mercruiser I have. It installed dot to dot which to me means it's 6° retarded at that point. I'm going to have to assume that anyone installing factory cams and timing sets dot to dot are installing them 6° retarded. I've asked that same question before and never got an answer. Am I right?
Either way, I reinstalled my Summit timing set to A8 and then I degreed the cam to almost perfect factory specs.
Thanks again to those that stuck around. I appreciate the help.

Max Lift. .284"x1.7=.4828"

IVO 5° (btdc)
EVO 56° (bbdc)
IVC 41° (abdc)
EVC 10° (btdc)

Int duration=IVO+180°+IVC
5°+180°+41°=226°
Exh duration=EVO+180°+EVC
56°+180°-10°=226°

LCL
Int (61° + 156.5°)/2=217.5°/2=108.75°
Exh (169°+74°)/2=243°/2=121.5°

LSA
(108.75°+121.5°)/2=230.25/2=115.125

Overlap=IVO+EVC
-5°+10°=5°

I used the factory timing set with the cams I got from Rookie and they were degreed right on the money per the cam card.

Interesting. I probably should have degreed it. I'll screw around with one of my other motors some time and see what the deal is.

Motor is buttoned up and ready to go back in. Of course that means it's raining...
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...fb10bae21d.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...e07e2ea211.jpg