Advance timing light..How to's required

[Whaler]

hello guys

I have had the luck of having a friend drop off his snap-on digital advance timing light. I have figured out to use it. I really need to know how to time my car by using it in a nutshell

Heres my situation.

Car is static timed now for 14 degrees. I have set up my MSD using the default blue advance stop bushing ( gives 21 degrees advance) Chose a light blue and a light silver spring as i wanted it all in by 3000 rpm

Today I am at the "let's finally see where the heck this thing is" stage since my FE break-in 2 nights ago.

So as far as I know, you hit the adj button/s to bring the mark to zeroon the damper. In my case at an idle, I have my display reading 14 and the 0 mark on the damper is bang on my timing pointer.

There are 2 adjust buttons to bring the degrees up or down.
At 900-1000 idle, I have 14 on my indicator.
At 15-1600 I can line up my zero with about 24 to 26 on the digital
So heres the catch I have reved it again with a bit more speed and it lines up at about 24 to 26 degrees with only 1500-1600 rpm....Is this the regular curve rate for these springs or does it seem a tad fast.
Do I need to go for some stiffer springs or what? Seems to be coming in early .. But hell what do I know I am new on this stuff

Also I should be seeing a total of 21 advance from the stop, plus 14 from static....giving a total of 35.
Should I forget about all this now and just see what rpm I have for 35 or so?? I had hoped its all in by 3000 rpm based on my spring choice.

Looking forward to some tutoring here.

What I have picked up
Never less than 10 or more than 20 static ( initial) advance
Ford that like 34-38 total with iron heads may like lots less with alumimun heads.
Where/how does one end up determining what is ideal initial timing and also what their idle rpm should be set at. At present I am about 900-1000 rpm warm and with 14 initial. It starts ok.
I have the edelbrock RPM package including their cam.....its a little lopy. What are you guys with these cams idling at??

Its a little fat too....still have the carb to do next. Initially I just gave it the basic 1 1/2 turns to each idle mix screw. Ballpark.
Holley 850 Mech Sec. Double pumper.
Haven't tried looking at idle vacuum settings yet. Not until I have the idle and timing set up.

It isn't flooding so the floats are not too high.

Tim