I have an Lt1 cam in my 305 and I set the base timing to 6 deg. after researching a little I have found that people are running upwards of 10 deg. I might be thinking a little carazy but instead of getting out the tools could I just sort of lie to the chip basically telling it the base timing is at -4 deg? would this basically do the same thing or am I hitting the crack pipe?

Crack smoker

If your doing your own chips, putting the correct value in the chip makes the ALDL read correctly among other things.

Changing the base timing w/o changing the code is just making a global change to the timing. The code adds or subtracts timing the same amount regardless of base setting.

It's a quick method to see if you need more or less. Just a band aid tuning method. If you can burn chips, keep all the numbers straight. Saves on confusion.

Some peoples cars won't even run with 6 degs static.

How are you going to lie to the chip w/o tools?

At 10 on a hot day you might have the engine crank too slow to start.

6-8d, initial, and adjust the tune with the chip.

Once you change cams, you'll need to change items other then just timing if you want to get the tune correct.

I knew things would have to be tuned but I was just curious if the base timing was changed in the chip if it basically change the whole timing curve on a global scale. Thanks for your input guys.