Hello everyone names Josh from Clawson MI just north of Detroit MI. I own an 81 olds cutlass with a 383 chevy motor. It has a comp thumpr cam world sportsman series II heads edelbrock intake and quick fuel 750 carb on top with 12:1 compression pistons as well as it being decked. Just got it runnin last week n having some issues timing it. Has what i believe is a mallory electronic distributor in it that i personally am not a fan of. Looking for some insight. Got the car to TDC and to fire and have been playing with the timing for probably about 6 hours or so now and CANNOT get it to stop spark knocking under heavy acceleration... Im kind of a rookie with carb'd engines n looking for some help if anyone is feelin up to it! Before this car I've only owned LS engine cars. Got a deal on a fully stripped/caged cutlass as a roller n bought the engine/trans seperate. again it is a 383 sbc engine and turbo 350 trans rebuilt with perf. parts and a 3800 convertor. Thanks for any help in advance!!!

 

12:1 pistons and the block is decked? Thats alot of compression. Whats the rating of the fuel you are using? 91 octane wont cut it and 93 may be a bit weak for it too.

Does your distributor have a vacuum advance? If so where do you have it plugged in? It needs to be above the throttle blades for timed advance. If you have it below then its pulling advance all the time.