sorry guys its a 1951 8ba with stock dist. i should have said that.. lol
You'll like the Chevy, I'm betting. I have one of GMC Bubba's in my 8BA, mechanical advance with a Pertronix. Timed it to maximum vacuum at idle then retarded it just enough for one inch of vacuum drop. It is running great. However, I am building another Chevy distributor with a Pertronix and an adjustable vacuum on it. I figure that there are more adjustment springs available for the Chevy and with the adjustable vacuum, I can play with it to see how if that works.
If you are talking about an 8BA carb, it not ported vacuum, it is a combination of venturi and manifold vacuum and is less than manifold vacuum. On a modern engine, ported vacuum means it is closed off at idle, other than that it's the same as manifold vacuum.What if manifold vacuum is all you got, e.g. strombergs? I'm assuming that manifold vacuum is slightly less than ported. Can the reduced vacuum be mitigated with an adjustable vacuum advance set to the lowest setting?