So...

Who is running a locked distributor?

I was just wondering as I am trying to optimize my advance curve but realized I could spend all this time to have it *perfect* where as I could just lock it in a matter of minutes and have it work nearly as good lol.

In my case I'm not running vacuum advance and the car idles best with 30 deg. advance but If I leave it at 30 for best idle it pings under load.

So locking it at 30 would solve this. Thoughts? Opinions?

Also, I could leave static timing at 10 degrees and connect vac. advance to the manifold - then I get lots of advance for good idle and once opened up the throttle it will drop and then max out at around 30 degrees. Is this better than just locking at 30 degrees?

Personally, I like the no bullshit approach of locking it at my max safe amount of timing (about 35 degrees). I get steadier timing with no chances of it failing (broken spring, throwing a weight) and the motor wants 30 at idle and 30 past 2500 rpm so just cut the crap and leave it at 30 all the time - its not like Ill miss out on performance between idle and 3000 tpm if I have the timing locked at 30 degrees.

You should check how it goes under load, as in dyno it first before you lock it.

I run mine locked. After raping two engines, I went locked. UNless you have a dial-back timing light, it can be tricky to tweak your timing.
In a perfect world, you'd lock one dizzy, and see how much total timing your engine can stand without detonation. Then rivit a plasitc 360 degree protractor to a spare rotor button. Then set up a dizzy shaft in a vise (with the shaft removed from the housing) and measure how much mech advance you have. next build up the ends of the travel slots untill you only have as much travel as the total advance that your engine can stand when running the locked dizzy. it's trial and error to get it right.

Trial and error to get right and the gain you'd get over a locked one would be worthless to the time you put into getting it to that point.

That's why I've locked mine just then :D - done away with the springs, set it to the full advance position and tacked the posts in 2 places with the MIG. Also used High temp/strength/viscosity (Thick green) retaining compound loctite on the weight pivots and the shaft that the rotor spins on for advance. So yeah, shes locked alright.

Also mocked up the dissy in the engine at around 30 degrees advance and lined up the rotor tips to the reluctor (and unbolted the advance lever) and marked a new hole on the advance arm. Drilled a clearance hole and bolted the advance plate in a new spot - this is because if you put lots (30 degrees) advance on the dissy and the rotor is in the fully advanced state that I welded it in you will notice that when the dissy fires the rotor is in between 2 dissy cap pins (not lined up to a paticular one) so what I did with re orientating the advance plate makes the rotor line up with the correct pin when the dissy fires.

So tomorrow I'll set static timing, idle speed and idle mixture and keep advancing the dizzy till I get pinging and back it off to a safe level (on road test that is) then I can check with a timing light what the engine pings at for reference.

Oh yeah, I busted my throttle cable today so on the way back I had it coming out the bonnet to the passenger side and my mate drove while I used pliers out the window to pull the throttle cable - MAN that was so funny/stupid/dodgey; good times.