About to fire up the crate 355 and the engine builder has instructed me to make sure and disconnect the vacuum advance and plug the line. The problem is that I don't have any vacuum lines connected to my distributor. Am I totally wrong about the location of this vacuum line? Sorry for the remedial question but I'm learning as I go and am new to the Chevy world.

It appears that my distributor actually has mechanical advance instead of vacuum advance. Are there any drawbacks to this type of distributor?

Thank you

If this engine will be used on the street at all, you will want to run vacuum advance. Strictly mech. advance should be reserved for a race only car. The vacuum advance will give you better performance, as well as better gas mileage. Do a search for vacuum advance and you'll have a ton of reading on this topic. There is also another thread on this same topic in the engine catagory.

I dont know if your carb has vacuum fittings on it, but if it does, make sure they're all capped or plugged so you dont get any vacuum leaks.

Read this:

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189195&highlight=ignition+101

Since I added the proper vac advance, my gas mileage increased.