We, I'm having fits trying to get the 383 timed right. I've had it set at 16/36 and all in at 2700 for a while. Thing is, I just got my 700R4 fixed and now my lockup is working again. While going down the highway at 50-65, if I give it gas, it starts pinging. Lockup stays engaged and it's too much load on the engine. I tried retarding the timing all the way down to 6 deg initial, and it STILL does it, on top of smelling like a refinery.

I'm really lost as to what to do from here. I have an edelbrock 1903 q-jet and the vacuum advance on the dist is ported vacuum, not full manifold vac.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated, before I put a hole in a piston.

-Josh

I'm going through the same thing! Joel gave me some decent links http://www.c3vr.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=72345 16 BTDC initial seemed to get me in the ballpark. I even went to 17-18 today and still only got 34 @ 3000 RPM though. There is no way I can go below 16 without problems, thank god I bought the plug booties my headers were lit up like crazy and I probably took 5 years off my engine. Also my 383 likes to idle around 1000 anything lower and it runs like poo. I got a little popping coming out of my exhaust still and I'm sure it's in the carb so I'm gonna attack that tonight and tomorrow. I tried the vac gauge method and it got me way off just cause I don't know what I'm doing so I went back to the light. I also threw a bottle of octane boost in it with chevron 92 and that seemed to help a bit. I'm sure my neighbors hate me by now

Hah yeah my headers have been glowing orange more than once. I dunno, I'm really unsure how to get it to stop pinging. If it does it even at 6 deg btdc I'm thinking my engine just has too much compression for 93 octane. That would be horrible if true :(

I'm going to set mine back to 16 initial, that seemed to work the best for me. Try a bottle of octane boost and let me know what you think I'm pretty sure it made a difference in mine. I'm taking my demon carb off tonight and reseting it to baseline, because I have totally screwed it up. I'm not really driving mine yet just, in n out of the gargage. The more I re-read Ben's post on setting the timing curve the more sense it makes to me especially with the 383. Now I gotta figure out how to make that happen. 

If youse guys are running with a vacuum advance on your distributors, you may have a problem with the advance not being correct for the engine. The advance mechanism should actually retard the timing in low vacuum situations, such as goosing it while cruising, or "rolling" into the throttle.
Also, make sure the shaft with the weights will actually turn independently of the mainshaft. A lot of time, the advance mechanism is frozen, and the thing just doesn't work right. The weights, and/or the pins they pivot on can be worn, causing the advance to just jump all over the place.

Where is the vacuum for the advance coming from...ported, or direct from the intake? In other words, below the throttle plates(direct), or above the throttle plates(ported)?

Ported vacuum will advance the timing as you give it more throttle. Direct vacuum will retard the timing as you give it throttle. Different setups may require different vac. sources. I've always used direct vacuum on hot-rods, and ported on "drivers".
My way of doing things ain't the only way, tho, so...take that with a grain of salt.

Yeah I've been told more than once to drop the HEI and get an MSD type mech advance. I'm running the advance from the direct manifold port on my demon. I initially tried the ported but gave up pretty quickly on that as it responds way better off the direct vacuum and does like you said the timing drops initially when I goose the trhottle but then advances as rpm's increase.

Ok, my 2 cents here, go with the MSD, it's been the best thing I ever did under the hood.  Half the fun is tuning it to run just right, not living with the limitations of a system that doesn't fit what you're trying to do. Hipo692008-01-29 00:39:31

I figure my compressions 9.6:1, I'm going to try to nail down the timing before throwing some 110 gas in it, be nice to get it running right on pump gas first. After today I'm definately on board with changin out the HEI.

Sounds like you're really on the right track between timing with the vacumn gauge and experimenting with different timing.  Just a gentle reminder on a couple of points.  If you're burning more gas (in your case) it's probaby because you're making more horsepower.  

We went all MSD on our 383. I never have any timing or ping issues.