I was told to set my (Mild perfomance) 454 at 32-33 degrees and then continue increasing until it pinged or dropped off power.
 
With the Mallory dual point (no vacuum) to get 33 at 3000 rpm I set the initial at 13 with a dial back timing light.

So far thats as much as I've put to it.  It runs good off idle to 4500 max and will only pull the boat to the low 50's.  I think it has stock compression and a lot of years of service at 35mph with the previous owner.

 

Thanks. It's at 10 degree's right now, not that it seems to make much of a difference.

Rod, I asume you checked all the basics, like water in the fuel.  About the charging, did that alt come with the boat? If not, Im not sure a standard alt will charge turning backwards? 

I have not checked for water in the fuel, I don't know how to. Yep, it's the alternator that came with the boat. I'm pulling the alternator off this morning and taking it to a shop that can repair it on-site. I'm also thinking about swapping carbs with the carb that came with the boat.   

Long story short, it's the carb. I have the initial timng now at 18 initial, 36 total. More on the timing later.

Long story long, I broke in the cam with the engine after I built it, got water in the oil, had a engine builder rebuild it for me, got it back 2 1/2 months later, ran great, and within the next week of running it on the trailer runs like garbage. I pulled the front fuel bowl off of the carb and it's full of brown crap, looks like dirt.  The guy that built my engine is going to clean it out for me for less than half of what the carb builder wanted. I'm trying to make one last river trip before it's past the season...

The timing. When I broke the cam in I was trying to use my "bought new on eBay from private seller's" MSD Marine distributer, MSD 6AL, and Blaster 2 coil. The MSD box is bad/defective and puts out a constant rapid fire spark just by hooking up the +12, ground, and the tach wire. So I'm hoping that I can "settle" and use the HEI until I can figure out how to go about and how much it's going to cost to fix the MSD 6AL. Anyway, the HEI that's on it now has initial timing at 18, total timing at 36 degree's. From idle to about 2200 RPM it's at 18 degree's, from 2200 to 4000 is the curve and stays constant from 4000 on at 36 degree's. Seems like the HEI's curve is short and comes in late. 

At least my first thought was right, it is running lean.   

when's it going to hit the water? Sunday

Damn bro, I hope so...

Did you get the drive line part?

yes

Long story short, it's the carb. I have the initial timng now at 18 initial, 36 total. More on the timing later.

Long story long, I broke in the cam with the engine after I built it, got water in the oil, had a engine builder rebuild it for me, got it back 2 1/2 months later, ran great, and within the next week of running it on the trailer runs like garbage. I pulled the front fuel bowl off of the carb and it's full of brown crap, looks like dirt.  The guy that built my engine is going to clean it out for me for less than half of what the carb builder wanted. I'm trying to make one last river trip before it's past the season...

The timing. When I broke the cam in I was trying to use my "bought new on eBay from private seller's" MSD Marine distributer, MSD 6AL, and Blaster 2 coil. The MSD box is bad/defective and puts out a constant rapid fire spark just by hooking up the +12, ground, and the tach wire. So I'm hoping that I can "settle" and use the HEI until I can figure out how to go about and how much it's going to cost to fix the MSD 6AL. Anyway, the HEI that's on it now has initial timing at 18, total timing at 36 degree's. From idle to about 2200 RPM it's at 18 degree's, from 2200 to 4000 is the curve and stays constant from 4000 on at 36 degree's. Seems like the HEI's curve is short and comes in late. 

At least my first thought was right, it is running lean.   

If your not getting full advance until nearly 4000 rpm I would suggest getting an assortment of advance springs and try to get full advance by 3000.  If I remember correctly You'll need to have someone with a distributor machine adjust the total mechanical advance.  18 initial is a little high and 18 mechanical is a little low.

If your not getting full advance until nearly 4000 rpm I would suggest getting an assortment of advance springs and try to get full advance by 3000.  If I remember correctly You'll need to have someone with a distributor machine adjust the total mechanical advance.  18 initial is a little high and 18 mechanical is a little low.

Damn, it needs a machine for that?    I'll stick with it the way it is until I can get that MSD 6AL fixed.

Rod
  If it ran fine at first, that brown crap came from one of your tanks! Go to a parts store or your garage and get one of those clear glass or clear plastic fuel filters, hook it up to the fuel line that fed the carb than run a piece of hose from the filter back into one of the tanks through the filler cap. Turn on the fuel pump and let it run while you watch the filter for anymore of that brown crap. Also lift the front of the trailer a few times to slosh the fuel around a little than leave it slightly high (like the boat was in the water) and let it sit for a while first, that should put any more crap at the tanks pickups.

  If you find more of it, I would pull the tanks out and flush them out realy good !  Its better than being stuck in the middle of the lake in a low profile boat that wont run because the carb is half full of brown crap!!   
  Been there, Done that! 

There's no way to explain it short version, so here it goes...

When I first used the carb, directly after it got rebuilt by a carb guy, I put it in my Rogers. I used it for 23 minutes in that boat. I hooked it up with used fuel line, used fuel filter, a new fuel pump, and a new fuel regulator. The sequence was: gas tanks, a "T", fuel pump, fuel filter, fuel regulator, carb. When BKPlesh was installing my fuel system in the Mach 1 (2 1/2 months later) he, and others, were giving me shit for putting the fuel filter after the fuel pump so he switched it and made it right. We used the same filter and lines. More than likely, the fuel filter was bad from it's used begining, also likely is there was crap stuck in the fuel pump since there was no fuel filter before it. Now, the sequence is: gas tanks, a "T", a new fuel filter (glass), fuel pump, fuel regulator, and carb. I'm going to waiste some gas and flush the crap out of what's in there. The old fuel filter was a semi-clear plastic one with what looks like paper inside, the paer probably deteriorated from sitting around dry several times after it got fuel to it several times, dried out again, etc... Whew...

It's a damn good thing I saved that 3 bucks on a new fuel filter because now all I have to do is rebuild the carb, again.      

It's always something with our boats... I thought that's why we owned them

You gonna make it to El Capitan tomorrow?  I'll be there

You gonna make it to El Capitan tomorrow?  I'll be there

I have to swap trailer tires, flush out the fuel lines, install the carb, install the alternater, run the mo fo on the trailer for about a half hour or so, change the PTO, install the driveshaft, and go get gas on the way to the lake. Hopefully the alternater will charge, but if it doesn't it's not going to stop me from going to El Cap tomorrow. I'll be later in the day vs. earlier. There's supposed to be two more boats going with me, both probably faster than mine.    Oh yea, I got to go pick up a borrowed GPS and pick up some numbers for the hull. 

I spent most of today working on the trailer for the v-drive and never touched my boat. 

dont run that motor to hard. Rod get some pictures.

it's raining!