Lazy or uneducated. There have been a TON of guys come on here who've built solid 350-500hp engines. And so many of them have that deer in the headlights response when you ask them what they've done to the ignition curve. Seems nobody wants to touch the distributor but will gladly chase the problem around by playing with jets and squirters. Stock distributors had lousy curves for stock engines, never mind modded ones.

If that was my engine, I would do the following:

Warm the engine up good and hot to normal operating temp.

Pull out the timing gun and set the timing at 10*.

Shut off and see how it restarts.

Repeat this procedure while bumping the timing up by 2* at a time until the engine starts fighting against the starter. You will know by sound/feel. Then back the timing off 2 degrees and see how it restarts hot. When you get it to start fine again with as much initial timing as possible, THIS is your initial timing.

Then shorten the advance slots to get 34-36* or so total timing. I think that's what magnums like. Too much timing can actually make less power, even though you don't hear it pinging. Typical small blocks with open chambered heads will take more timing, like 36-38.

Different springs will adjust the rate at which the advance comes in and the rpm total advance is all in at. You can have total all in at 3000rpm or at 2000rpm depending on how you set it up. In a 4x4, you probably don't need all the timing in overly early if you're going to be putting a load on it while 4x4ing.

But get your initial set to where it should be, probably in the 12-15 range and enjoy increased throttle response, cleaner burn and better low rpm power.