Timing question with 455 olds.

[dekmaster]

Hi guys,
I am very thankful for all of the great advice that i have received from all of you thus far on my endeavor into mechanics and boatings. I'm having trouble setting correct timing on my 455 olds. I put on a torker manifold, HEI distributor and a holley 750 DP. I set the timing and at higher RPMs I hear the valves clattering. I thought about about it and I think it's an indication that I have too much advance. Can someone please walk me through on how to set up timing correctly. I'm using a timing light that has a dial adjustment for the advance. What RPMs do I need to set it at? What should the advance be?
thanks in advance.
Dennis

[psdperformance]

I set mine up with 34 degrees of total advance it should be all the way advance at i think 3500-4000 rpm. I forgot what initial should be it's been awhile. I would call mondello racing for exact specs do a search on the internet and it will pull up their info they are experts on olds motors. To setup total advance put your timing light on number 1 plug wire, turn the dial on light to 34 degrees and rev the motor to say 3500 rpm and see what your
timing is on the motor it should read 0 on the motor if not move the dial until it does read 0 and look at you dial to see what timing you have and adjust from there. It's very simple.
Hope this helps. Chris

[396_WAYS_TO_SPIT]

When i set up my olds back in the day i set 10 degrees inital and put 20 degrees in the distributor. That gave me a total of 30 degrees total. I had it all in by 2500 rpm's. 3500 is too high. I ran mine at a conservative of 30 degrees and never worried about it. She ran good too.
396

[dekmaster]

How would I set the initial timing and then in the distributor? Can someone explain this to me in more detail?
Thanks
Dennis

[psdperformance]

How i did mine was set your dial on the timing light at 0 run the motor at idle and hit the timing tab on the block see where it is it should be say 10 degrees if that is what you want i do not remember where i set my initial timing at i just remember my total. move your disttributer until the light hits 10. You can double check it by moving the dial on the timing light to 10 degs and your light shoud hit the 0 mark on the tab on the motor. Now move the dial to what ever your total advance you want say 34 degrees and run the motor to 2500-3000 rpm and see where your motor is advanced to and adjust your dist accordingly it should be pretty close to what you want so only minor adjustment will be necessary.
good luck, chris