Well I just replaced the ignitors in my car and its a 1985 gsl with a 12a in it... Anyways, im wondering if your idle increases when the timing is retarded and if it actually makes it run smoother when set in the middle position... I didn't tighten my timing adjusting bolt (distributor housing one) and it went to the very retarded postion and to be honest it felt like the car gained a ton of power... So my question is should I just take a timing light and make sure all the plugs are firing at the stock position? The idle seems very lumpy at the stock position and I don't think I have any vaccuum leaks because I just removed the rats nest...

And just so you guys know I want my setup to idle smooth and make decent power...

 

Hmm mine has a higher idle and more power if the timing is advanced... at least to a certain degree. Grab a timing light and see where you're at.

 

and a question with that... I put a spot of red paint where the notch was on the main pulley, so should I just line them all up with that? And when I try to advance my timing it seems to just die because the idle drops drastically

 

There's supposed to be two notches in the main pulley, a yellow one, leading, and a red one, trailing.

 

now just to clarify in what direction is the yellow mark from the red mark? Its gonna be hard to describe this I know... But if you are looking straight down from the top of the engine (right at the alternator, looking down) is it to the left or to the right on the pulley of the red marking?

Thanks

 

Well let's see. From that perspective the rotors rotate clockwise, right? so the yellow would have to go first, or in other words to the right of the red marking.