Anywhere between 8° & 14° initial timing at idle with the vacuum advance unplugged will suffice for a test drive.

And Welcome to the site!

compression is at 150psi on 4 cylinders, one cylinder at 155 one ant 145, one at 140 and one at 130. how does that sound ? they seem to be right in the 150 range, with the lowest at 130.

checked all the spark plugs while they were out, and found most of them to be at .050 gap. i closed them all up to .035.

the plugs are motorcraft BSF 82C, and they seem to be burning hot. they have a burnt spot on them in one area. not sure if the heat range is correct for this engine ? could this also be a condition of running too lean ? need some help in this area.

ok on the timing. couldnt remember if i should check initial timing with the vacuum advance unhooked from the distributor ? we checked it hooked up and at idle, and the previous owner has a red aint mark on 6*, so im asummming the PO wanted it at 6*. well, at idle with vacuum advance hooked up it looks to be about 20*. car starts right up and idles well. im gona go out there now and see if unhooking the advance will get the initial lower than the 20* its running at with it hooked up.

ok, i now see that ted said between 8-14* with the vacuum unhooked. going out there now to unhook the vacuum line and see what we get.

just wanted your thoughts on the compression and the spark plug condition.

going for a test drive afterward. i will post the results.

leonard

Setting the plug gaps back was the right step - and that's on the road to recovery - but what did they look like at each position? Make a diagram or list if you would and number them out. The cylinders of the Ford / Edsel engine are numbered 1-2-3-4 front to rear on the passenger side and 5-6-7-8 on the driver side (front to rear). Make a note of the plug nose condition - compression figures from earlier, hole by hole, etc. It will give you all sorts of clues as you go.

When I dragged my bird home - I had four rich cylinders and four plugs lean burned - and the pattern matched their common cylinder feeds out of the intake manifold. The manifold is cast in what is known as a "cross-H" - so that as each successive cylinder fires, it is alternately taking the intake charge from one side of the carburetor and then the other. The four lean cylinders led me to a bad idle feed on one side of the carb - and the other side was set-up over-rich to accomodate it. If that's what you find  - we'll figure a way to help you through it.

The engine has three ignition advance settings / features.

(1) Initial Advance Setting - is at a low (warm), constant idle speed, checked with your light (clean off the marker and marks on the damper). The vacuum line to the vacuum pot should be disconnected and the opening in the carb sealed up to prevent a vacuum leak. Original factory setting for the Edsel could range from 0° to 6° - all of us have found that the upper end is better. When you have things humming - this can be judiciously raised to something like 10°-12° - but don't go there yet.

(2) Centrifugal Mechanical Advance - when you rev the engine and watch the timing marks indicated at the damper, they should rise smoothly with rpm. The engine has to have its spark "lead" automatically adjusted as rpm increases to start the fire in the cylinders at an ever increasing rate. If this isn't happening - you'll find the point plate has some holes in it - squirt some WD-40 down below there and see if you can get it to loosen up. Otherwise, the thing will need opened up, cleaned and lubricated for proper operation. Tests of the centrifugal advance are done with the vacuum line to the distributor disconnected and the carb port plugged as before. 

(3) Vacuum Advance - When the vacuum pot is hooked to manifold vacuum it advances up to a fixed maximum point as full vacuum is reached. Your tests have shown 20° - a reasonable stock performance at elevated vacuum (closed throttle idle). This feature is normally added to the engine to promote economy - and to an extent help reduce operating temperature - but the engine will run without it. Leave this alone for the moment - and get the other two systems to work right - just plug the open port at the carb - the 20° is fine when you need it later. 

Get these systems working - and you will be a long way toward a successful tune-up.  

Distributor RPM is 1/2 the RPM at the crankshaft - so you can see that the 6° additional centrifugal advance (you found when reving the engine) would occur at about 1400/1500 crank RPM. If you haven't got something like that, the internal mechanism is either "pretty stiff" or maybe has some god-awful heavy flyweight springs in there. Have you tried the WD-40 "soak-down" yet?

The 20° of vacuum advance you found, could occur (by this graph) with manifold vacuum levels of 10 - 15 inches of Mercury - so that value is reasonable.  

Sorry, nothing to add to the technical side of this discussion (I'm more of a question asker at this point in my mechanical career!!), but as a side note I would suggest this Mr. Edsel: you should definitely tell your buddy to get on this forum and if nothing else read thorugh all of the responses here as well.  Not so that you don't have to help him or so he feels the need to do things himself that are beyond his skill level, but if there's anything I've learned since getting into old cars it's this: it feels so much better to at least have an understanding of mechanics then to always have to rely on someone else.  Plus that way if he creates a sign-on, etc., he can come here and ask some questions so next time he hits you up for help he'll have a starting place for you!

I know all of my mechanic friends appreciate that! LOL

Granted, I suppose you have to enjoy learning this type of thing.

Anyway, keep all the good information flowing guys....I'm loving it!

Before you put the new one in - you might find it convenient to have a look at the mechanical advance mechanism while it is out on the bench. The above photo shows the typical Ford flyweight arrangement used on the later distributors. It isn't too difficult to disassemble one down to this level. The pictured unit has two "total advance" limits to choose from....18L and 13L. When the base is engaged in the 18L slot - the distributor can provide 18° of advance (36° at the crank). When it is engaged with the 13L slot - 13° (26° crank). You would like to find it in the 13L slot and if not, its a good idea to put it there. To move one 180° you must remove the little retaining clip (located under the green grease in the picture), disconnect the springs, and lift the upper rotor shaft up to turn it. The little clip has two upward facing whiskers - they have to be spread not squeezed. There is a variation of this pictured rotor shaft that has a 15L and a 10L slot - if that is what you find, I'd say use the 10L. It could be opened to the same length as a 13L with a small rat-tail file - but that is getting ahead....

Here is why you want the limited distributor advance setting - the engine will only tolerate something like 36°-38° of total mechanical advance (that is the initial plus the distributor) under load (with low/no manifold vacuum). You want to put more initial on the bottom (10°-12°) without violating the upper limit. If you were to use the 18L slot - then the initial advance set point would have to be down at 0°-2°. When using the 13L slot, the initial can be 10°-12° (adding some nice low end torque) and not violate the advance limit as the engine gets into the higher rev's. 

Installing it - the lower end has a hex drive for the oil pump shaft. In some instances, where these shafts don't get a lot of engagement into the distributor - you have to be darn sure the new distirbutor is fully down into the engine well and engaged - or you'll soon be trying to start up with no oil pressure! Rotation is counterclockwise as seen from above.