87' F-150 5L @ 17BTDC w/ 87 oct.
 

Got a 302 w/ 180k, 45K ago rebuilt before I bought it. I've had it for the last 20k. After looking into increaseing the advance for my truck's base timeing, I prepped the truck for allowing as much increase as possible. I re-adjusted it 7 or 8 times over a 2 day period, till l felt comfortably out of pings way. It's been 2 months since, and a couple of days ago,I hauled 26 90 lb. sacks of cement, tools, 3 people & towing a commercial mixer up a grade. Didn't phase it. It's like driving a new truck that looks like my old one. But every thing Ive read implied 14 BTDC. is about all I should have been able to do. I don't Know what went on when it was Rebuilt, Is there something that coulda been done during the rebuild. My compression is 180-182 psi for all 8. I was thinking about switching from the ac/delco 2x plat. rapidfires to Motorcraft copper cores & seeing if I can kick it up another notch on the timing , But I feel like I'm grtting out in Noman's land. (yes, I re-shunted & checked for the computers additional advance from base set.)

It's very unusual, but not unheard of. I had a friend in Ojai (California) who had an early 90's Mustang who was able to do the same thing. He ran regular unleaded, and was at times able to advance the base timing by up to 19 degrees with no adverse effects. Maybe you guys use the same gas. :)

just about every drag racer i know that runs a stock 5.0 mustang has the timing right at 18* for the strip, then changes it to stock or 13* for the street.

Do you happen to have a dial-back timing light?
I'm curious to know your max advance and at what RPM you hit it.

I set the time at oper.temp. & rpm at 680 (checked with an infared timer against the tach).Only one button on the timing light. Should I check it while rpm is increased to 4 or 5 k ? I'd hate to give back those degrees now that I've gotten used to em. Whatever happened to the ping? It finely starts to show coming up on 19. Can I get away with running the colder Motorcraft copper core and leaving it at 17?