Its way more complicated than that. It has nothing to do with re-starting the car either. Depending on how bad the det is, it can just pull timing instantaneously (temporarily, just for that moment), it can "learn" to pull timing in that range permanently (until reset), or it can lower the overall ignition advance, which lowers timing across the range. See questions 26-28 in the above FAQ link and the other FAQ I posted here on nasioc a while ago (i dont have the post # so I dont have the link).