slant 6 timing/vacuum advance issues

My new slant 6 (18,000 mile 225 from a little old lady '71 Demon) needs help. I converted to electronic ignition at the same time as putting the motor in

The brand new module is located on the firewall with brand new wiring. I've tried different modules, same results. Used distributor.

I have the motor timed at 5 degrees with the vacuum advance disconnected, as per service manual. When driving, the van will buck and chuck and run totally lopsided. If I disconnect the vacuum advance (which is connected to the carb) the motor runs fine, but a little sluggish like there's not enough power.

What's going on? is 5 degrees too much advance? How can that be? Is there something wrong with my distributor? Is my harmonic balancer located in the wrong spot, making my timing marks off?

I'm at wits end. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks.
Neil.

Most of the /6's I've delt with are timed right at TDC w/ the vac advance unplugged. Try that just for sh*ts and giggles.

You could have a bad vacuum advance too.

i will check but some were using ported vacume and others manifold vacume. ported is a fitting above the throttle plate and basicly no vacume at idle. the manifold type is just that manifold vacume at idle possibly 17-20 inches of vacume. thats another way of timing your engine get the highest vacume reading at idle but for a novice there is a lot of other things to take into consideration. try moving your vacume line at the carb from one to the other and do a test drive. your base timing of 5 degrees is not that far off to cause the conditions you describe. what is your carb? holley or carter 1 or 2 bbl.?? also 4 or 5 wire control unit

Yes, I am a novice so I don't really know what I'm doing, but I sure am learning!

Great tips guys! I'll check inside the distributor and make sure everything looks okay, but if the vacuum advance isn't right, I don't know how to set it. Seems to me the vacuum advance canister was tested and good when we put the distributor in.

It's a Holley 1 barrel, 4 wire control unit. Ballaster resistor is new, I've tried the old one too.

Nate you said to put it a TDC, but my book says 5 degrees? I'll try zero though.

Out of curiosity..what book are you using?

Ah...it's a Dodge A100 service manual, brown colour. I don't have it here in front of me, but looks like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Dodge-A-100-Service-Manual-Van-Sportsman-Wagon_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1205Q7c39Q3a1Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c240Q3a1318QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem350102501135QQitemZ350102501135

this is a stupid question but 2 or 4 pin ballast resistor??? i still think you got the wrong vacume port at the carb going to your dizzys vacume advance. we wont discuss adjusting the vacume advance till we try a few other things.

Most likely you have the Holley 1920 carb. The vaccum port for the dist. is on the throttle plate facing the passenger side.

Yep..Enbro that's the book. 5 deg. ay? Gotta remember though...that timing spec. was for the factory point dist. Now you have electronic ignition which may change some things. Try using a vacuum gauge to set you timing like was suggested here. 17-20 in Hg

Yes, it's connected to the carb. So at idle, there should be no vacuum? So if I hook my vacuum guage to the port off the carb, set the timing until it reads zero?

I think my book says 5 degrees but 0 degrees for a motor with CAP. I chose the 5 degrees because I don't have any CAP (clean air package, smog control) stuff.

Thanks a lot guys!

search at slantsix.org - you will probably find more info than you want ! - many guys there switch to electronic ignition using a gm hei module - i am putting together parts to do so myself - they also mention when doing any electronic conversion you should use a solid state voltage regulator - although that is probably not your problem - did you run the engine before converting to electronic ignition ? - oo3