anyone have an idea what the dwell should be on this distributor. i took a reading of 21.3 @ idle this seems really low should it be around 27-30

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1972 chevy camaro ss
425HP 350sbc old school build-up

restification in progress 70's baldwin motion NHRA gasser with old school day2 parts
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if it's to loud your to old

30 is the preferred setting...damn, been a long time since I've worked on a points distributor!

Yup, 30. And you're right, sharpeye, it has been a long time!

it's been along time myself since working on a points distributor 20 years i think.so 30 is what it needs to be then so could this cause the motor to lay down around 4000rpm.my friend is telling me it's spitting back thru the 4bbl under hard acceleration.it's also skipping a little from 1500-3000rpm

Remember to reset the timing after changing the points gap because your base timing will have changed, especially with such a huge change in dwell.

My dad and I were talking about points, and he said that he would check if the points had changed with the timing light. Once you have the points set, and the timing set, then you can just check the timing occasionally. If the timing has changed, then you know your point gap has changed, because the distributor hasn't moved (or it shouldn't have anyways).

Indeed changing the dwell does change the timing, but interestingly engough, changing the timing does not change the dwell.

Real common for an engine to spit back with a points ignition. Plugs get just a bit dirty and if the carb is on the lean side the weaker point ignition won't fire with enough power. Get it tuned up with a fresh set of plugs and try it.

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by tom3:
Real common for an engine to spit back with a points ignition. Plugs get just a bit dirty and if the carb is on the lean side the weaker point ignition won't fire with enough power. Get it tuned up with a fresh set of plugs and try it. </font>

so your saying the ignition is to weak to ignite all that fuel coming into the combustion chamber from the 750 DP.i did take a look at the plugs and they're fouled pretty bad but not oil contaminated.the holley 750 DP has :

primary side -
#31 squirter
orange cam
#76 jets
6.5 power valve

secondary side -
#31 squirter
red cam
#80 jets

i'm not sure if it's going lean because it only spit back a couple of times both at the top of 2nd gear.i think it's fat and like you said the spark can't ignite the mixture.this 283 really sounds nice though rowing up thru the gears with the pedal buried