ok...a while ago i put a 266 energizer in my carbed 305......now im wondering if i made have messed something up a lil.,....the car only runs right with the timing cranked way over advanced.....if you even put it at the middle it will barely run if it does....but the more advance you give it by turning the distributer the better it runs....im kinda new to timing so i dont know degrees and all that technical stuff.....i do it all by ear..lol:lala:

 

oh yeh...if its complicated are there any books or anything that explains it?

 

that's your first mistake. get a timing gun. unplug the vacuum advance hose and plug it, then check your timing. do a search for checking and setting timing, there have been plenty of posts on it

edit: also, what exactly is a 266 energizer? a battery?

 

Your car isn't stock, so no "spec" exists that you can just magically cure all your problems by setting the timing to it.

You mention "lots of chrome goodies", a complete waste of money IMHO since that money could have been used to buy stuff that actually does something for you, and is usually a step backwards in function like the valve covers with no oil separator baffle under the PCV holes. I'm going to assume that this includes a timing cover. Do you know if the timing mark on your new cover matches the location on the old one? If not, your timing mark is meaningless. It's just a pretty white line that moves back and forth when lit by the blinking light.

All you can do is set it to where it runs the best. I'm assuming you have a non-computerized distributor with a reasonable curve; if not, start there. Usually the best timing curve for a typical street performance motor is somewhere around 10-12° static, centrifugal advance starting at about 1200 RPM and reaching 24° of additional advance by about 2500 RPM, for a "total" timing of about 36°; and about 10-12° of vacuum advance on top of that, from the ported vacuum source on the carb. If you don't have a curve that looks something like that, you need to do some work to your dist.

But of course the first thing is to determine if your timing mark is accurate, and if not, create one that is.