Locked timing , yes or no

I had the timing locked in my car, with not so good results. Tore teeth off of the flywheel once. Started when it was cold and cool. south of 130* water temp. As soon as it got warm, the engine would struggle to start. Rewired the car with new battery cables, better batteries, and it didn't get better. Soon as I installed the weight kit in the dist, my problems were solved. It started everywhere anytime.

If you run a 16volt battery, it may not be an issue

[Ed Wright]

I have never locked my timing. I don't see the point. Only thing I ever locked was the mag in my sprint car, but that was a push start deal.

[Lew Silverman]

The timing of this post (no pun intended!) was perfect. I was just getting ready to lock the distributor on the 'wagon, but I think I'll keep the advance weights in it!

[joespanova]

I have it locked in my car.......and it works just fine that way.

[Dwight Southerland]

For those using a locked distributor or a crank trigger, you can also use one of the many ignition control boxes that have a built in retard circuit for starting. If you use mechanical advance, it will help to limit the amount of advance so that you have a lot of advance at idle to help engine idle quality with long duration camshaft. Seems like I had 10-12 degrees of advance in the distributor of my stocker so the fixed timing adjustment would be in the 24-30 degree range.

[1320racer]

the start retards do not work, been there done that. Some have stated they pull too much timing out.

[Dwight Southerland]

Originally Posted by 1320racer

the start retards do not work, been there don't that. So have stated they pull too much timing out.

Not necessarily true. There are lots of solutions on the market and every engine combination is different. It will pay to do research and talk to those who it works for. I agree that some work and some do not.