40 degrees initial!

It's like something is goofy. Both of my v8's would die out if they were timed at 40° initial. very few engines will. The old drag racers would hook the distributor 12 volt power to a toggle switch and crank it over to start it and switch on the ignition so it wouldn't kick back against the starter. Unless you have a 350° duration .700 lift cam you don't need that.