california smog; how to adjust timing correctly

[Santanas86c10]

  so i need to smog my Cali 86 chevy c10/r10 long bed 4bbl 305. Eng. Has 57,000 orig. miles on it. Ok so please if any one knows how, please advice me or send me links onto how to properly adjust timing correctly and i do know timing is to be set at 6° before top dead center at 550 rpms. But it is set at 22 degrese btd center. HELP!!

[Burkhalter]

You will need a timing light. It will also be good to have something to make the timing mark stand out a little more. Silver sharpie works good. Hook the light up to the battery and the inductive clamp up to the no.1 plug wire. Make sure your wires won't get caught in the fan and crank it over. Then you just point the light at the harmonic balancer to get your reading. To retard it you will need to rotate the distributor clockwise. Don't remove the bolt and clamp from the distributor. Loosen the bolt so that it is still snug yet you can still rotate the distributor.