I put the finishing touches on a friends (and fellow TCER'S)new 400 engine and I'm having trouble getting her dialed in. I brought the car to my place with pretty much a long block. It's a 400 bored 40 over with dart heads, and a 540 lift roller cam. Hooked everything up and fired her up. The timing and vacumm have me stumped. At a very smooth idle I have a quivering 7" of vacumm. The timing has had me scrathing my head for 4 days now. I'm running about 30 degrees initial (no vacummm advance)and when you rev her up mechanical can throw it as high as 60. I'm not even close to enough advance yet cause there is no off idle power or midrange power. No spark knock, no starter bind when hot.

The only thing I'm wondering is if the chain is off a tooth or the bottom sprocket is in the retard keyway. BTW, if I hold a gear and get over lets say 3500 to 4000 she comes alive and screams. Since I haven't a RPM guage I can't be accurate. All I know is up high I can tell things are in sink. Which tell me more advance?

Can I keep putting more advance in without hurting anything? Why a quivering 7" of vacumm? I checked for vacumm leaks. Maybe too tight of valves? But it idles really good. Any thoughts are welcome cause I'm out of ideas.

Anybody out there???

I don't think you can have the cam retarded enuff too affect it that much. Cam timiing has no relation to ignition timing. Im betting valve adjustment to start. Check the dizzy to make sure the springs are still there and it advances smoothly.
Try timing it with the vacuum gauge instead of the timing light. The ring on the balancer could of spun or you could have the wrong balancer or timer mark. Just adjust timing until you reach highest vacuum. Then test drive and see if theres any signs of detonation.

Stacey, use Harold's quick and dirty method of cam degreeing - its just a quick check. Roll the motor over by hand to #6 TDC, watch the #1 valves as the engine approaches #6. You'll see the intake opening and the exhaust closing. If the cam is in at "0" the intake and exhaust valves should be an equal distance from the head surface. If the intake opens up more than the exhaust closes, ( meaning the intake valve retainer is closer to the head), the cam is advanced, if the exhaust valve doesnt pass the intake on the way up ( it remains closer to the head surface), the cam is retarded.

Its just a quick check, but I actually set my cam up with a .055 diference and found it degreed perfrectly at +7. So, its real close.

Thanks Jim and Gene. I think I found the culpret. I feel it has to be the valves or valve too tight. That would explain very low vacumm. I can't get above ten at a pretty good idle no matter how far I advance. And I'm talking over 40 at idle. Took her back to 15 initial with MY carb and she has managable manners but still very low vacumm and no low end power. I didn't want to even take the valve covers off cause this engine is very pristine and you know what happens when you go diggin into things with nice pollished aluminum and all the nuts and bolts unmard. But there is only one way to cover all the bases, Right?

Hey, can someone give me the adjustment technic for ajusting by hand rotation? Thanks!

Have you checked your balancer & timing pointer for TDC?

Yep. I'm still playin and I think I'm up to 400 horseees like I'm supposed to be. Runnin a bit rich but that is to be expected. I'm using the carb that is dialed in for my BB.