I've read here about people with "34 degrees locked out."
Does this mean the distributor timing is fixed at 34 degrees and that there is no centrifugal advance at all? Is this because race engines are hammered from the starting line and spend so little time at idle to 3000 rpms?
Thanks, Jeff

That is mostly correct. And we tend to use better fuel so you are less likely to get detonation due to fuel with to low of octane. I know and I also have put the light springs in an MSD distributor so that I have not so much timing during start up and driving around the pits and when you hit the throttle it will go full advance.

My Brothers race car is set up with the ignition locked out at full advance. He spins the motor over then turns on the ignition. That makes it eaiser on the starter. On my street/strip car mine is set up with 17 degrees initial then it is all in by 1800 rpm. Makes it a bit easier being it is still street driven.
Scott

I am using an MSD 6 AL2 programmable , so I can change the curve with a lap top. But I use it mostly for ease of starting......it is all in by 2200.

I run a older 7al non-programable and have a crank trigger with the dist locked out, timing set at 35* and use a start retard to light her up, once running it go's to full advance even at idle

What happens is that the more radical the cam, the lower the cylinder pressure is at idle. Lower cylinder pressure requires more timing, just like when you are at light throttle/cruise and the vacuum advance pulls in more. Flame speed is VERY low at those cylinder pressures.
There is very little motion in the fuel air mix to keep it from falling apart, which aggravates the situation even worse. Put it all together and you get that radical idle that we all love The mixture is so poor and inconsistent at idle and off idle, the motor won't fire evenly till much higher rpm.

I run my dist. locked out @ 35 degrees and use a Rock 16 volt battery and there is no "Tricks" needed to crank it!
PS a good 16 volt battery makes everything better.

On my 416 thats in the Rampage its locked out at 40*
but when its warm its a bit much.. that was set on
the dyno for best power... I'm gonna run it with advance