Timing help ! Sorry

The relationship between total and initial advance is fixed inside the distributor and cannot easily be changed. You can change it but for the sake of this conversation it will be too confusing. The distributor will have a fixed amount of centrifugal advance. So if that number is 20 (just an example) and you set initial to 10 (again just a number) then you’ll have 30 total. If you set initial to 15 then you’ll have 35 total. See how that works? There are springs on the weights that control the rate of the advance. So if you are aiming for a total number of 34 and don’t know the amount of centrifugal, then run the rpm up in neutral while watching the timing mark with a light until it stops advancing, at that point twist the distributor until it reads 34. That will be your total timing. Your initial will just be whatever the total is minus the centrifugal, And you just live with whatever that number is. Hope that book helps.