back in the day when a 12v was brought to a dealer running poor, standard thing to do was to bump the timing up to 16*. I would suggest torquing down the stock head bolts alittle tighter, and I would bump it up to about 18* and not even think twice. 2 or 3 years ago on my puller I ran stock head gasket and bolts, that I torqued up, in the 2.6 class running over 50 psi and 21.5* timing. Biggest thing is to let the truck warm up before you get on it.

i did 28° for a wile then bumped it to 32°, back to 28° now

only thing i noticed was i could hear timming rattle under 2K driving down the freeway

I've run 17* pretty hard with retorqued bolts with no problems yet. I'm not betting on it holding up forever though.

check your fuel pressure to turn higher rpm with that pump fuel pressure is your friend. When my 94 was my dd with the 175 p pump stock head bolts and a sliver bullet I ran 22.5*

if your running stock pistons anything over 25* is spraying out of the bowl, and making things worse not better.

im gonna run 22* maybe more depends on wat the shop says

all depends on how you drive

thanks for the input guys. I already torqued the stockers down to 120 im not planning on it staying together forever but so far so good. making 45 psi with the hx 40. i will check the pressure for the stuble up high too. So my next ? with all that timing, like around 20* do they still start when its cold? im all the way north in jersey its like 5* out rite now

if you keep the grid heater in it will start fine

so is 22* ok? and what is the tq on the heads?