IMM Engines 408 build

I have to say, I admire folks that live in a mine field for a living (build engines, etc) after learning over the years a simple fact; I don't know what I don't know! This has brought about many wrong conclusions for sure, and some conclusions that were wrong were the fact that the problem was someone else's.
A real rooky mistake by a friend of mine MANY years ago led him to believe that the three engine failures (catastrophic) was a poor engine builder. Not true. His mistake was in dialing in 20 degrees ENITIAL timing in a stock distributor, not knowing that now he had about 52 degrees total in a 13.5 /1 compression 340! Needless to say, BOOM! surprisingly the motors lasted a few passes each between failures.