1972 buick 350 from a skylark going into my 83 regal my mech cant find a manual on the 72 skylark hes trying to figure out where to set the distributor he knows the firing order just dont know where to set the dist at i hope im saying it right lol hope someone can help me also its was a point dist at first but i bought a HEI distributor to swap over
Tell your mechanic to set the total timing (without vacuum advance) to 32*. The distributor you have should be part number 1112109. That distributor has between 12 and 16* of mechanical advance. That was the manufacturing tolerances back then. That distributor might have 12*, it might have 16*, or anywhere in between. The stock initial timing for a 72 Buick 350 was 4* BTDC, but if you set it there, the total will only be between 16* and 20*, again depending on how much mechanical advance there is in your particular distributor. That is why I advise owners to set the total timing to 32*. The initial timing will then be, what it must be to get 32* total, and that is the important thing. That will give you the best full throttle power. Show this to your mechanic. He should understand what I have written. He should also know how to use a timing light to set the total advance, if he works on older cars. Honestly, you could do this yourself, but if you want to pay someone else to do it, it's your money. Everything you need to know is in my Power Timing thread in the FAQ Forum. Re reading your post, I see you have bought an HEI. Same thing applies, set the total timing. I have to tell you, it concerns me that your mechanic doesn't know this. Maybe he just needs to know what to set the total timing to. The answer is 32*. Most Buick V8's like 30-34*. Start at 32* and go from there.
