locked total advance

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sixty_foot
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locked total advance

#1 Post by sixty_foot » Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:32 pm

anyone got any tuning experience on locking out the total advance on my msd ??

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#2 Post by John_Heard » Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:06 pm

I'm pretty sure most MSD distributors can be locked out easily. I think on most of them all you have to do is knock out the drive pin in the gear, take it apart and open it up some and rotate the main shaft plate to the advance plate 180 degress locking out the advance. Then just reassemble.

There's probably some instructions on the MSD site in a PDF file somewhere for your model distributor.

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#3 Post by Bobalos » Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:37 pm

that is exactly right. & yes you can get those directions on the MSD site with the instructions for the dissy.

Bob

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#4 Post by sixty_foot » Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:50 am

what i was really trying to get at, is, there that much of a performance gain locking the advance than by using the centrifugal. the car is mostly driven to the strip, and driven very little on the street. i was also curious if this would create more heat in the motor if used on the street.

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#5 Post by John_Heard » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:17 am

Not really any performance gain because with your centrifugal advance all the timing should be in anyway by the time you're at a launch RPM, the main benefits are:

- Easier to set timing at a lower RPM
- Less variations in timing, locked is locked

Drawbacks

- Harder starting unless you have something that retards the spark during startup like a MSD box with that option
- Not as pump gas friendly with low octane gas

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#6 Post by YD-LUZ » Tue Aug 30, 2005 4:37 pm

Beyond wrote:Not really any performance gain because with your centrifugal advance all the timing should be in anyway by the time you're at a launch RPM, the main benefits are:

- Easier to set timing at a lower RPM
- Less variations in timing, locked is locked

Drawbacks

- Harder starting unless you have something that retards the spark during startup like a MSD box with that option
- Not as pump gas friendly with low octane gas
Exactly, well said. Put a light on it and find out where full timing is coming in, I re-curved mine to be at full timing at 2,500. Re-curving an msd is very easy and to buy the bushings/springs is just a few dollars. Good Luck!

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#7 Post by johnh » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:58 pm

cut and paste quote:
Exactly, well said. Put a light on it and find out where full timing is coming in, I re-curved mine to be at full timing at 2,500. Re-curving an msd is very easy and to buy the bushings/springs is just a few dollars. Good Luck!

?? So your preferance is to not lock the distr. Just recurve to your cars liking. I am assumming you do not have the compter corect?
Do you use a high rpm retard at all?

i know this post was old but its helping me. thanks

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#8 Post by John_Heard » Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:33 pm

If it's a nitrous car and you're getting serious with how much your spraying it I'd highly recommend both locking the distributor and a crank trigger. Trying to guess where the timing is at with those weights flopping around and the timing mark moving all over the place is no good. Go watch someone with a crank trigger and locked dist set their timing at the races, you'll be amazed how much steadier it is - and you'll be able to set it accurately.

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#9 Post by johnh » Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:42 pm

thanks john, i will make a point to watch for that this weekend. thanks john h

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