Advance/retarding stock cam?

[90mustangGT]

Looks like my "new" 88 has a bit of a timing cover leak, and has the original timing chain so I am thinking of replacing it with my adjustable one that can either go 2* positive or negative, as well as straight up. Would there be any advantage or disadvantage to advancing or retarding the cam on a stock engine?

 

[skunk21]

IMHO not really unless you want to make sure the valve events are happening when they are supposed too ( the stock motors tend to be all over the place when it comes to this ) but you would need a cam degreeing wheel for this. In the short version advancing the cam makes the power come on sooner (lower peak), retarding the cam makes it come later (higher peak). However it is more involved than that but that is the quick explanation. If you can't go the degreeing route and since this is a stock headed motor I would just put it straight up and down and throw some timing at it via the dizzy.