term ? locking the distributor....????

have any of the drag racers here heard that term.....supposedly moves your timming to fire first on plug 6 on a sbc......thanks

 

i have only heard that used when they lock out the advance completely

 

good , bad, ????

 

Locking the advance gives you one less thing to worry about. No weights or springs to stick or break during a run.
It'll make the engine hard to start, but some of the timing boxes have a start retard feature built in.
Definitely not something for an engine that sees a lot of street use, the advance mechanism helps with a lot of drivability issues during part throttle cruise or light acceleration, where a street engine spends most of its time.

 

Timing it on 6 rather than one may be because 6 is easier to reach for someone.
Firing order 1-8-4-3-6-5-7 2 puts 6 180 Degrees opposite of 1 in the firing order and the marks line up the same. It really makes no different if you use 1 or 6 to set the timing on that engine.


And sometimes those things are just an old timer messing with your head.

Doing a bit of searching I found that "locking" the advance at a set point is somewhat popular with guys who run drag only cars or cars with extreme engines that don't see a lot of street duty.
No advantage or a disadvantage for a mild street engine but it might make a fairly radical engine easier to tune for wot use. A guy has to remember that a lot of things that work on highly modified engines or race only engines don't work worth a damn on mild street engines.

 

Lock or clock ?

 

Drag Race only where you are wide open only and moving advance isn't needed.

 

I've seen super heavy weights for racing, kind of like plugging a carb up.... Some loose terminology for a quite simple racing term. IMO... As it was said, one less moving this is one less thing to break.

 

im having my car worked on by a drag racer and that's what he has done. dizzy 180 out and carb,750cfm, blocked.... got me worried a little, its an old dirt track racing engine, can I run this setup on the street at all.......?

 

by the way, im running a single 4 tunnel ram a560 something cam iron double humps.....

 

I wouldn't run it on the street, you either have a drag car, fast-2mile to the gallon street car or a cruiser... Pick one. I prefer a quicker cruiser because in the long term it will be less wear and tear and you get to enjoy it more.

 

Yes you can. If it starts hard or kicks back on the starter just wire a toggle switch on the ignition side so you can spin the motor over then hit the toggle to fire. I run my car like this it works great! 11.3-1,266/276 dur@.050 .730 lift,750 d.p.

 

thanks, im excited and nervous, he said it will definitely rap up now....we'll see soon

 

Yea it's not impossible, I had some issues with a 468 bbc in a off topic ride with the same race set-up when I was younger. I thought it was fun until I started to learn to advance and found the weight issue. Hope it works out!

 

Exactly.

As for locking the advance....
I did it on my circle track cars. I wouldn't do it on a street only car.
Wire it so you can spin the starter then switch on the ignition once its turning over. Otherwise it will be real tough to start.
How much advance is your engine guy telling you to run?

 

32 degrees

 

There's no real advantage to it. If the advance springs break, it will go to full advance instantly, which is the same as locked-out advance anyway.

I also use a starter ****on to spin the motor and an ignition switch to light it. Easier on starters.