I would never set a distributor at 35 if it climbed to 50. the Mopar Performance distributor from memory used to begin low and then very quickly reach its maximum advance by 2000-2500 (somewhere there, its been years since I used one), and stay that way all the way to redline.
This one I bought from ebay, its just locked. and no vacuum advance on it. maybe he messed it up, and its supposed to act like a mechanical advance distributor. it doesn't. its basically a locked distributor. my timing gun cant be lying over and over again. and I like it this way it works the same for me if it had advance built in or not as mine starts no problem and I don't want to run over 35 total anyway. ive never seen a good 'mechanical advance' race distributor as simple to use, no messing around, and as reliable and good as how the Mopar Performance race item used to be, and they're no longer sold. so I wouldn't buy anything other than a locked race distributor from now on. this one from ebay, its either a fluke it wasn't done right, or he's selling them this way for people to just run em at 20 - 25 degrees locked. I didn't even bother ask, or argue, as after I realized the one I received from him was a locked item, I just began at 15 and kept advancing it at idle until it had 35 and it holds it dead on through the entire rpm and it still starts no problem so ive kept it.
if I built another engine and it didn't want to start easily with a locked distributor I would setup a timing retard on start, rather than try run any mechanical advance which just doesn't do what it is supposed to and wobble the curve and not be consistent.
and this mind you is coming from someone who ive tuned 120+mph naturally aspirated ls1's with a cable and laptop, and sat for hours typing timing curves in, and multiplying entire timing tables, you name it. and ALL that, a simple low deck MOPAR with a locked distributor will WALK any LSX engine when you know what you are doing and have good cylinder heads. all that technology achieves nothing. emissions? ha! they run cleaner as 500+hp race tuned doing 10's, than how they came from GM doing 13 second 1/4's.
technology blah blah.... bored engineers and the trillionaire elite they work for looking for ways to keep changing things and wasting resources, as long as they release a 'new' version, so you think its better and MUST have it, so they get to steal more of your money. if everyone was still driving a Model T Ford, there would be lots of zero's missing from their net worth, and there would be a lot more countries still under control by different family bloodlines.
yes I reached all that from talking about a locked distributor. the only thing a new HEMI has over an old one, is that we've been fooled into believing technology is good for us. its good for the elites pockets to fool us all into keep throwing away the old, and then they reuse it over again, and we buy it from them, again, and again. after iron ore is mined and turned into steel, since when does that steel get thrown away for good, do they dump it in the ocean? no, it goes back and they make it into another new thing for us all to buy.
and that's how 'technology'..... is good for 'them'.
