bought my firebird several months ago, but am only just now getting it tagged and driveable.

with all the reading i've done on here, i pretty much expected the nearly 305 to be a slug, and wasn't surprised when it just didn't "pull" when i put the pedal to the floor.

went to get smog tested yesterday and failed. nos was too high on the 50/15 test.

technician suggested timing too high or egr bad. timing was set at 14 degrees, vacuum test revealed bad egr. replaced it and passed smog.

car drives completely different now. pulls much harder through the gears. still surges a bit at idle, though. i read an article in a magazine a few months ago about how a poorly performing egr valve could make a big difference in performance before it got bad enough to be obvious ... it appears to be true.

what should the base timing be set at on a stock, manual trans l-03?

also, any ideas where to look for the solution to the surging?

it seems to be running a tad rich to me, i smell unburned fuel every now and then.

mileage isn't good, either. around 13mpg in town