This is my first post here on this site, although I have read this page off and on for a while now. I am a little confused by the timing on my engine and was hoping to get a little clarification. My Father-in-Law and I rebuilt the 292 in my '60 F100 about 18 months ago. When we rebuilt the engine my Father-in-law set the timing for me and I never gave it a second thought because the engine runs really well. It is basically a stock rebuild except we had the cam reground to an RV cam, it has a 4 bbl Holley carb and headers. I am also running a stock rebuilt distributor. From my research I have found that the manual says timing should be 4-6 degrees btdc. I have seen some people say that timing should be 10-12 degrees btdc. When I checked my timing with a dial back light I found that it was approximately 20 degrees btdc. Is that crazy? Should I dial it back closer to 12 degrees? I set it to approx. 4 degrees btdc and drove it around the block, it seemed to run a little rough so I set it back to 20 and parked it for now. I have heard that you really need to use a vacuum gauge to time a y block correctly. Is that true? Thanks in advance for your input