'Advancing timing makes power. The more it's advanced the more power you'll get. And the only thing limiting the advance, is ping. So you advance till ping, and back off till it's gone.'
'The only reason you retard timing, is because you advanced too far and it's pinging.'
I feel embarrassed to put that out here... But it's literally what I've believed about timing
All I've ever done with a carbed vehicle is set it to idle spec with a basic light and leave it alone.
Never once checked total timing or any of that.