Your right Chas, you had mentioned that in another thread and I considered and think it IS something I need to do. I don't like retarding my timing "just enough" to let the starter work, I'd rather be able to "dial it in" to where I want it exactly!
Looks like the timing retard is the answer for me, thanks for the tip. As for shipping the car soon, I'm going to pull the 6500 rpm chip on the 6AL and replace it with a 3000 rpm chip. Another good tip if your worried about "dock jockies" driving your car on or off the boat!
Now another problem with the distributor, which I was trying to over come, is the 18 degrees mechanical advance. If I end up running 20-22-24 base THAN add another 18, not good. I'm TO far advanced. MSD offers no reasonable method to limit the 18 degrees (using the biggest bushing, the black one). That big bushing is about all that will fit to limit the advance curve. Dang it, I may have to consider another model distributor to really dial this thing in 100%. BUT, I like my "Ready to Run" dist, hate to give it up. I like the vacuum advance, I like the stand alone feature in case the MSD-6AL box bites the dust. I want it ALL.
I guess I could go to a second MSD box and wire it up to "switch" in case of failure, but I'm also trying to keep this whole thing SIMPLE. That aint gonna happen...
I tell you this, throttle response is fantastic with at least 20 degrees of advance base timing. Not only that, it remarkably cut's down on the "fuel slosh" stalling/hesitation during hard cornering or braking. Anything less than 20 and I have to deal with some other issue.
4 years and about 12,000 miles later I'm STILL looking for that illusive "perfection" pot of gold.