Jeff,
it's 16 initial. Initial is no vacuum advance. Remove the vacuum hose and plug it to set. Then hook the vacuum advance back up when done.
As far as being too much, I have a total of 35 degrees mechanical advance. My MSD distributor has 21 in the distributor and 14 initial. I was running 36, i.e. 15 initial, but backed it off 1 degree this past summer. Any engine can take more timing in colder weather. This is why they ice the intake between runs, to cool the intake charge. Drag racers absolutely love cool dry weather.
It's all got to do with compression ratio. The more CR you have, the less initial you will probably be able to run. If I remember right, your CR is around 9:1 or so, Mine is about the same and it does great at the above settings. But I do have a EGR, which helps to cool the combustion chambers somewhat, hence the reason you can run more vacuum advance with a EGR.
Good luck and please report back tomorrow.
Mike