Tuning the ignition timing curve
I have a question that involves ignition time. I am not satisfied with the timing curve on my car, I think the car could be going faster. I've got a 381 sbc stroker. with no vacuum advance 12 degree initial timing, 36 max centrifugal advance timing, and the timing max comes in at 3000rpm. I leave the line at 3000rpm and the converter flashes to 4000 before it really grabs. It just seems like that 36 degrees of timing is a lot down around 3000 to 4000rpm. If you look at timing curve of production engines it looks the timing keeps advancing until about peak torque and then is flat. I believe this is due fact that after peak torque volumetric efficiency goes down which requires less timing, but your rpms are still increasing which requires more timing so they cancel each other out making a flat spot in the timing curve. I've looked at some dyno charts and it seems like peak torque is always happens at about 75% rpm(give or take a couple percent) at which peak horsepower happens. So if peak power seems to happen at 7200rpm on my engine, peak torque is about at 5400rpm? Does that mean I want my timing to gradually increase until 5400 and then flatten out?
