[Keith True]

My cars start good at full retard,idle nice a couple of clicks down,run around town halfway down,and run flat out with the lever all the way down.If I pull the lever down halfway at an idle the engine jumps up and down.If I try to pull it all the way down at an idle the engine wants to jump out of the frame rails.I looked at a car that the owner had owned since 1950,when he started it he pulled the lever down all the way.It revved up a little,but ran nice.I didn't think the car had any power,but he said it had been like that since he bought it.I timed it and told him to go for a ride.The first thing he found was he couldn't yank the spark lever down at an idle.The second thing he found was he could run it at 55 without laboring.He came from a time that the A was a 20 year old worn out car that was cheap for a kid to buy and bang around in.He had always set the timing the way his dad showed him in 1950.Turn the engine until the pin drops in,then aim the rotor at the headlight,or the edge of the radiator,whatever it was he used gave him severely retarded timing.He had a Model A tractor,Model A skidder,Model A cordwood saw,Model A powered splitter,he knew how to keep the engines running but only for stationary use.I did put a Brumfield head on on my pickup,that one is a little tricky on the advance.Anything over 1/4 down on the advance and it wants to hammer and buck.And that is flat out on the road.I have monkeyed with it,thinking I'm setting something wrong,but it runs best timed as original.I just can't feed it much advance.It's almost like driving a modern car.Start it,pull the lever down 3 clicks,and leave it there.Idle or highway speeds,it runs fine.It has an NOS B cam,a B dist.cam,and is either .060 or .125 over.I did two engines for my two trucks and can't remember which one got the big bore.My cars have always been very sensitive to the GAV and advance settings.