How to adjust timing?

I need to know how to adjust timing to get the most power on a 87 trans am with a stock 305 tpi.  i need to know how many degrees and if I need to retard or advance it. Any help would be appreciated!  

It's been a long time since I set a TPI TA, but the procedure is simple enough. Run the engine until it is warm, shut it off and locate the timing connector. It is a tan colored wire with a black stripe that has an inline plug in it, usually hanging out of the harness near the distributor or along the firewall near the heater box. Unplug the connector and restart the engine, the check enine light will be on, hook up the timing light as you would on any non-efi V8 with the inductive pickup on #1 plug wire (front cylinder, driver's side). Check your emmision/tuneup tag for the base timing setting, I believe it is 0 degrees, but check to be sure. Loosen the distributor hold down clamp and turn the distributor to adjust the timing to spec. On most small block chevy engines, the largest notch in the timing tag is "0", so just line up the line on the balancer with the big notch. Tighten the distributor hold down clamp and recheck your setting to be sure it didn't change, shut off the engine, reconnect the timing wire and disconnect the negative battery cable for a minute to clear the code and turn off the check engine light. Restart the engine to make sure the light is out. Depending on the octane level of the fuel you use, sometimes you can experiment with slightly more base timing, you can try advancing it 2 degrees at a time, but don't go crazy, if you go too far the engine will start to ping and the knock sensor will retard the timing so far that you will lose the benefit of the extra timing and the engine will have even less power than at factory settings.
Steve  
A little help... 'cause we don't all have to learn the hard way!