Quote:

how do you set the inital and the total without reworking the distributor?




What I did on my drag car with a 360 was get some timing tape from MP and install it on the damper. I disconnected the vacume advance and plugged the vacume line. I started the car and held the RPM's steady at 3500 or so. THe MP dist had total advance in by 3000 RPM so you have to hold the throttle above that. Using a timing light, I turned the dist. until it read 34 degrees. Small blocks like 32-34 and big blocks like 36-38 I think. I didn't worry about what the initial timing was. Some factory dist have the capability to advance the timing a lot more than a MP unit. In this case the initial timing could be too high. You would have to mix and match parts inside the dist to limit the mechanical advance.