Ok so here is the deal I have an 84 Trans Am with the standard carburated V8 305 with 4 BBl. it was hesitating and had a real rough idle with first start in the morning. And even during the day after it had been running it would still hesitate and idle kinda rough. So I advanced the timing some and now it doesn't hesitate anymore and idles pretty smooth. The only thing is now my lifters are tapping when i give it some gas. In other words when i get on it or am going up an incline. Still idles rough in the mornings at first start to, but I'm thinking that has to do with the choke and the throttle position sensor. I tried putting higher grade gas in it 89 octane instead of 87 and that helped a bit. Is there anything else I can do? The pinging is making me nervous, I don't want to mess up my ride.
many thanks

 

Lifters don't ping, and the tapping you're hearing as a result of advancing the timing isn't lifters. It's actually "spark knock" or pre-ignition, where the gasoline explodes instead of burning in a controlled fashion.

If it does that, you pretty much have to back the timing off until it quits.

The rough running when cold is something to do with the choke; possibly there's not enough "vacuum break" which is where a little vacuum diaphragm cracks it open once the car starts running. The cause of that is either a defective vacuum pull-off diaphragm or a sticky or bent linkage. Those go bad alot. You can just put a new one on and see if it helps; it's pretty cheap.