Heaven only knows what led me into my thermostat replacement (it was sitting around waiting for me so I digressed) when the real issue for me was WIRING. As I’ve already posted, having some intermittent issues with my solenoid fusible link (I think) and needed to fight through the under hood spaghetti to try to find the weak spot (sort of ongoing). Meanwhile, while chasing everything that runs across the front of the vehicle (under the upper rad support) all of which was found to be relative to 1) trickle charger and 2) MSD box. As I moved through and chased each wire down I thought it odd that the orange lead off the MSD was connected to the coil (-) post and the black lead was connected to the coil (+) post. Finding that to be counter intuitive I looked up the schematic and found the reverse to be correct (as presumed). BUT, I found in the data abyss we call WEB that reversing the two is a “known racing/performance hack” to retard or advance timing without unbolting the distributor. Not sure I understand the principle unless one is switching back and forth to meet emissions and then to run the scalded dog, er cat. At any rate, popped the timing light on and confirmed my previous 14 - 15 degree idle advance and rolled it back to TDC. Then I switched the wires. I then reset myself to about 15 degrees (didn’t bother checking total at this time because my timing light was fagging on me; it is almost as old as the car). Noticeable difference. I never really had an issue with the way the car was running, it wasn’t a beast, but I got my thrills with it - but NOW, I have to moderate pressure on the throttle from a stand still if I want to save rubber. Very interesting, but not sure I know why. 15 degrees is 15 degrees; isn’t it?
Not necessarily if the electronic ignition was miswired! Nice find - congrats!