1979 C10 454 Timing

[schnid72]

I have a 79 c10 with a factory 454. The engine was replaced back in 2014, by the owner before me, with the same peanut port 454 that it originally came with. Motor has performer intake, Holley 750, and headers. My question is on the timing, the manual I have says it should be at 4 degrees BTDC at idle (without the vacuum hooked up) this seems low. I have set the current timing to 13 initial and 34 total (both without vacuum) , I am wondering if this is to much? The motor seems to like it, It does not ping or anything. What do you think about the current set up? also why the heck would they have it set a 4 degrees BTDC? I have looked at a bunch of info and I cant seem to come up with why it would be set so low. the current set up seems to be pretty common (13/34) what do you think??

 

[QBuff02]

My freshly rebuilt performance 454 engine is set at 16 initial and 36 all in by 2,800rpm. Big Blocks generally like a little more timing than their smaller brethren. Less timing was generally more of an emissions thing for both engine vacuum and cleaning up the "exhaust". But being up in the teens for timing is NOT uncommon on a big block, especially one with any type of upgrades, so if your engine likes it, run with it! Mine is perfectly happy where it runs at and the performance is spot on. I will add that I also run 110 octane, but most you talk to will tell you they run more timing as well even with less octane rating.

 

[Craig 85]

Here's the air cleaner tag for my '85 K30 with a peanut port 454 and California emissions.

FYI, Edelbrock Performer #2161 is not compatible with peanut port heads. It's designed for oval ports. When I was young and dumb in the early 90's, I put one on my stock peanut port 454 and it ran like crap. Edelbrock used to make the S2P2 intake that was designed for MPG and torque, but it's been out of production for years.

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