Advancing Timing to 18 Degrees

Timing

Sounds like the answer is to play with it and see what works best. I had mine up to 18 before the supercharger and it ran ok but didn't like low rpms, 14 seemed to work best. With the sc I'm at 12 with 2 on the boost retard.
 

i was just down at cecil 3 weeks ago. i normaly run 87 octane around town at about 12-13* and it seems to run better that way..last time i went to the track i bumped the timing to 14-15* and put 93 octane no ethanol in and it ran slower at the track..
 
My car loves 18° intitial and I could get it done on 89 octane with no ping as long as the chamber was relatively clean. When it starts to ping, I run some sea faom through and I'm good to go again. You'd be surprised what 2° difference feels like in my car.
 
As hot as it gets out here, I can't hardly even run 12* BTDC on either of my 5.0's without getting ping, especially if I run 87 octane. I can't run 87 octane even with the stock 10* timing on days like we've had the past week or so (110*F+). I can get by with 89 octane sometimes, but even then I get a little ping here and there. It's only cool enough to run advanced timing in the late fall to early spring months, but the fact that we also get the crappy ethanol blend of gas from October to May also affects things, as well. I'm so sick of constantly bumping up and rolling back my timing over and over again that I'm just going to stick both my cars at 10* BTDC and just run the cheapest gas that I can that doesn't ping, as that's about as good as it's frickin' gonna get.
 
Ive got mine at 14 and run 89 in it but have been getting a little noise lately. next time im at the track ill try the bumping it up method and see if i can find a sweet spot with the 89 oct.
I have had mine as high as 16
 
ever thought about installing an msd 8680?
 
ever thought about installing an msd 8680?

One of those would be nice, but it costs money that I don't have. I can't even afford a set of used tires for my '84 right now. And even if I could afford one of those groovy timing adjusters, I could only justify putting one on teh Notch, as opposed to my other car which is my DD - I don't want to pour a bunch of money into my daily beater Fox and then have some random yo-yo without insurance come along and destroy the car during my 30-something-mile-each-way daily commute.