You guys are great. I'm glad I found this site, and people on the forum who have good knowledge and are willing to share it. I'm pretty good mechanically, but don't know Pontiacs (yet), or any GM, for that matter. I still can't get over the complex methods used to do the simplest things...a solenoid on the throttle lever?!

I swapped out the springs on the mechanical advance to the mid-tension Accel springs. I don't know where the curve starts yet. I also started adding vacuum advance in the adjustable canister, right now it's at a modest 4 degrees which is just enough to notice. I will disconnect it when dialing in the initial and mechanical, and will then start adding it back in. Does anyone have a guess at how much I will want to add back in? The stock can was 20 degrees, and I think that was too much. I would have liked to road test, but we had rain most of the day.

I've ordered the parts and I'll be installing in the next few days. I will post when done and let you know the results. Since I have to move or remove a bunch of parts anyhow, I will be changing all the belts and hoses at the same time. Is it necessary to remove the radiator to do the timing chain swap?