Is there a way to verify that the cam timing gears and chain were properly installed on a recently rebuilt engine without dissasembly . I had a 312 engine (60 over)rebuilt, stock cam and it does not have anywhere near the power the orginal engine had. The engine idles smoothly and does not backfire. It has slow throttle response compared with old engine.. The engine has ignition knock on hard throttle and I have moved ignition timing around trying to eliminate that but still present under full throttle and power suffers even more.. Under full throttle the power seem to come back around 3500 rpm. I am using the same carb (holly 600 )and distributor from the old engine. Could cam timing be the problem? How would if run if it was off ?

The old engine idle was never ran totally smooth at idle so it may have had a performace cam but I am not sure.

57 tbird aod

I have been sitting behind a YBlock for 50years