Initial timing question

[YGBSM]

I see that a lot of you guys are running 15-20 degrees BTDC for initial timing. 

The booklet I got with my Mopar electronic ignition kit says to set initial timing at 5 BTDC plus or minus two degrees.  I set mine at 7 degrees BTDC to get rid of some part-throttle detonation.  Car runs well now, although I really haven't pushed it yet.  This is a 496 with aluminum heads, 10.7:1 compression, Comp XE274 cam.

So, just wondering how you guys are getting away with so much initial timing?  I know every engine is different, but there seems to be a big difference between what Mopar recommends, and what seems to work for a lot of people.

[Charger´69]

I see that a lot of you guys are running 15-20 degrees BTDC for initial timing.  

The booklet I got with my Mopar electronic ignition kit says to set initial timing at 5 BTDC plus or minus two degrees.  I set mine at 7 degrees BTDC to get rid of some part-throttle detonation.  Car runs well now, although I really haven't pushed it yet.  This is a 496 with aluminum heads, 10.7:1 compression, Comp XE274 cam.

So, just wondering how you guys are getting away with so much initial timing?  I know every engine is different, but there seems to be a big difference between what Mopar recommends, and what seems to work for a lot of people.

Initial timing doesn´t tell how much your max ignition advance is, it depends on your distributor. I think you should tune your engine that way that you find max ignition advance which your engine works good without detonation and then just check how much you have initial timing after that. And if it starts and works good there you have best timing to your engine   Max timing advance should be somewhere 30-40 degrees, depending on your engine. I´ve red that normally it is somewhere 35-38 degrees.

I had 5 BTDC, I raised it up to 15 BTDC but I think it detonated a little, so I decreased it to 10 BTDC and it works like a clock in every situation   It worked just fine with 15 BTDC till I swapped my original coil to MSD Blaster 2 coil, I don´t know why but after that it started to detonate slightly when flooring it between 3000-3500 rpm   So I decreased timing advance a little and now it works just like it should work   With my distributor difference between initial timing advance and max timing advance is 20 degrees, and I have initial timing advance 10 BTDC so max timing advance is 30 degrees now. I´ll try to increase my timing advance to 2-4 degrees higher than now and test that does it work without detonating now, maybe I decreased it too much just to make sure that it doesn´t detonate at all.