Two things.
First, fix the vacuum situation, there's nothing you can do to get the motor running right, if there's a vacuum leak.
Second, throw out the books, they won't apply. It's all about the motor, not the car. Since it's not an original motor, there's no assumption on it being the original dizzy. A CCC dizzy is run from the ecm, not vacuum advance.
The 1980 Chevy 229 used a mechanical dualjet, vacuum dizzy, the 81-84 229 was CCC, and differed from the Buick 231 basically by where the dizzy is placed (rear for Chevy, front for Buick) but both were optioned back then, the Buick being a California setup.
So what you have is a poorly slapped together mix of parts. Either go all out CCC or scrap it totally in favor of vacuum.
Vacuum advance will be manifold vacuum, not ported. As far as timing, that's impossible to say unless you can find the engine date code stamp, as you say it can change from year to year, but basically you'll set timing according to manifold vacuum, without the dizzy attached, in the 15-20 range at 500-700rpm. You might adjust that later if getting knock.
Without being able to verify the timing mark location, those can also change, I'd also suggest actually physically/manually verifying TDC beforehand via the piston itself and making sure that when you set the timing by light, it's accurate. Some timing pegs were at 12 o'clock on the timing cover, some were at closer to 1:30-2:00 o'clock and on the block, which can throw off timing by 20+°.
First, fix the vacuum situation, there's nothing you can do to get the motor running right, if there's a vacuum leak.
Second, throw out the books, they won't apply. It's all about the motor, not the car. Since it's not an original motor, there's no assumption on it being the original dizzy. A CCC dizzy is run from the ecm, not vacuum advance.
The 1980 Chevy 229 used a mechanical dualjet, vacuum dizzy, the 81-84 229 was CCC, and differed from the Buick 231 basically by where the dizzy is placed (rear for Chevy, front for Buick) but both were optioned back then, the Buick being a California setup.
So what you have is a poorly slapped together mix of parts. Either go all out CCC or scrap it totally in favor of vacuum.
Vacuum advance will be manifold vacuum, not ported. As far as timing, that's impossible to say unless you can find the engine date code stamp, as you say it can change from year to year, but basically you'll set timing according to manifold vacuum, without the dizzy attached, in the 15-20 range at 500-700rpm. You might adjust that later if getting knock.
Without being able to verify the timing mark location, those can also change, I'd also suggest actually physically/manually verifying TDC beforehand via the piston itself and making sure that when you set the timing by light, it's accurate. Some timing pegs were at 12 o'clock on the timing cover, some were at closer to 1:30-2:00 o'clock and on the block, which can throw off timing by 20+°.
