I would go with that. Fuel pressure being vital, as well as total timing. You also don't indicate a mechanical or vacuum advance distributor, just the weight set. BIG difference.

I'm gonna go with vacuum advance, since most Olds had that. Which could tie the two problems together with a simple vacuum leak.

First rule of jet boats. Dump ANY and ALL Vacuum advance Dizzy's. Worthless.

Second rule of jet boats, and I see this all the time on Holley's, a good high flow, inline filter before the pump and after, and ELIMINATE the bronze ones in the carb fuel inlet fittings. All they do is slow down flow at that point to a trickle and are designed for street engines that do not operate at the sustained RPM we do.

Now beyond those two rules, there are several. "Read your plugs, and read your plugs" and several solid others, but others you'll hear are life saving!  Like "Never believe Ralph about how fast his Family Boat is",  "Never get towed in by Brad unless it's an emergency", "Never believe Rivertard when he says 'The roost won't hurt, drive through it'", Or when he says "I'll respect you in the morning"

Never believe Hallett Dave when he says 'he approves this message" because he has NO IDEA what the message was initially. Never believe Aquaholic that the best money he ever spent was on an outdrive deckboat (The text to PROVE this is on my phone)

Take Anything we tell you with a grain of salt, as my Grampa used to say. It's VERY easy for any of us to spend YOUR money on OUR dream equipment. Some of us have ALL of that dream equipment. Some of us have experience with SOME of that dream equipment. Bear that in mind. Most are on a budget, and opt for the HEI ignition (Dumbest move ever, IMHO, and many will back me up, but the cheapest move available)

THIS is what you have to be open minded to!

RAy   

We can agree to disagree, Glenn. Personally, I can't see plug readings being more important that in a Jet Boat, Or a Cessna........and you oughta see a Cessna's plugs, not nothing close to ours, and have to be read by a certified technician after 100 hours or flight................

So I guess it's not important......

RAy

As for the timing at idle it sits at 22 and with reading I've done it should be between 12-14 and at about 2500 rpm it will only advance 13 deg. I dropped it to 16 at idle and it will still only advance 13. I do have an electric fuel pump. It is also a vacuum advance dist. It has a holley 750 on it with a torker manifold. I'm going to get a fuel pressure gauge today and see how much pressure I have. Recommendations on what the pressure should be at?

A GM HEI is hard to beat in my opinion, but it has to be set up correctly. Always use a genuine GM module, Autozone and the like are very cheap inferior copies. I wouldn't use an MSD module either.