how much mechanical advance are you guys running??
 

whats is average???? and when are you totally advanced???

36 degrees locked.

A basic 50x with a big carb will run between 32-36* total advance. Probably 12-14* BTDC at idle. Full advance should be between 3000-3500.

This is for non supercharged NA..this is a whole new box of worms when you have the power adders..

Post what you have for internals etc and I'm sure myself and other people could narrow it down relatively easily..

Good luck adam.

yeah im running 32-34 total right now with my msd set-up but Im having DUI dist. built and they set the advance at whatever you want. im thinking about locking it out but worried about it kicking back when starting hot. Its a NA 540 with iron heads.....

I would have it set up with about 14* of advance with full advance at 3000rpms. That will allow 20* base timing for a good idle, but not so much timing that you have to worry about frying starters.

Agreed...

I wouldn't push it over 34* over 3500rpm..you're not really going to make any more power, and unless you're dynoing them, which I'm not sure you are, better off on the safe side...with the octane at the pumps...

everybody says its wants to stall less going in and out of gear with the timing locked out.....any truth to that???

yep, but I don't think with the setup you have you're going to see a major difference from how it acts now...it's not that radical.

All of my set ups advance at around 1500RPM's I usually run between 12 and 16 degrees.

The only reason to retard the advance is to help at idle and docking and starting once hot.

Locking them up is OK with mild or low compresion, but if you are 9.5:1 or higher you will not like the ignition locked out.

You may not notice the difference though if you have mild cam sahfts.

running a crane 741 I think