Mikey's new four-door

[1987cp]

That's right, I'd forgotten you'd gotten a 2122 for that car. What sort of idle vacuum did/does it pull?

[Nathan in MI]

To be honest, I couldn't tell you. I've never had a vacuum gauge on the thing because it's still running the stock carb, so there was never any tuning to do.

[P72Ford]

Mine pulls 15 at idle in drive, and about 20 in park, with the idle at about 500 rpm. This is with the stock cam. It was way off until Thain/ Mike told me how to properly adjust it.

[1987cp]

Still no progress with the vacuum, though I plugged off the port that had been used for the distributor vacuum advance (per turbo's advice some time ago that non-EGR cars shouldn't use vacuum advance) and tightened the A/C belt. Also temporarily removed the tach so I can see the speedo better, fixed the wiring so the horn can be sounded using the stock horn button (imagine that!), looked at the nonfunctional light on the voltmeter, and got an idea for how to keep the middle dash trim from flying backwards.

I also may have found a cam that I'd really like to use in the event I get around to swapping cams in this motor to something with a little more peak HP and that can better make use of the HIREV governor kit than the 2122 with peak HP at 4000rpm. Comp Cams' Xtreme Energy 268H looks like it might be just the ticket, with peak HP about 500rpm higher and a much flatter torque curve (per Desktop Dyno, of course) than other cams of comparable specs. Looks offhand like it should provide a very nice gain both with the stock heads (pic #1 below) and with ported heads (pic #2).


Oh, and I almost forgot .... I drove past one of those signboard thingies that displays your speed as you drive past, and the speedo appears to be just about spot on with the 18 tooth gear I substituted for the 16 tooth gear that had been in there.


....

[1987cp]

More updates of interest ... I seem to have found a lot of the car's lost power. First I found myself directed to position #23 on the carb calibration map (1 stage rich on both power and cruise modes), and then I had a closer look at the harmonic balancer. There was a white line that lined up precisely with the timing pointer at baseline ... but I wanted to make sure of what it was. Would you believe, it turned out to be marking TDC itself! I made a mark at 10 degrees BTDC and set the timing to that to start with, took the car for a quick spin, and giving it about 1/4 throttle in a straight line resulted in an aggressive peel from the right rear. I bumped the rev limiter back to what should be about 5300rpm (the numbers are very hard to read) and swapped in my lighter centrifugal-advance springs and called it a night. However, I did notice that this particular distributor has one of those oddball 13/1X centrifugal advance limiters Ivan had discovered on his 429, with the larger slot currently active, so once I have the time to play with the retaining clip I shall have to swap in a 10/15 advance limiter to avoid total timing readings in the 40-plus range.

[Nathan in MI]

Wow, so initial timing was at 0? Didn't the idle sound retarded?

[1987cp]

Uh oh .....

Response is now GREAT, but what's that rattley noise under heavy throttle? Can't find anything loose underhood. Real annoying, occurs only under certain throttle conditions ...

Uh oh.

Probably spark knock.

Didn't recognize it at first because I haven't heard it since before the rebuild on my mom's old '86 Escort.

Spark knock == bad.

This tells me it is VERY important that I either swap advance limiters immediately, or at the very least swap the heavier advance springs back in for the time being. I do have another 351W distributor body, so maybe I'll see if it's good enough that I can prepare it to swap in.

Curse that stupid retaining clip that makes Duraspark advance limiters so darn hard to swap.

[1987cp]

Wow, so initial timing was at 0? Didn't the idle sound retarded?

Sure did, but I thought the old white line was at 10 degrees, not 0 degrees, so I figured the main issue was somewhere else till I had a closer look at the timing marks.

[torquelover]

Response is now GREAT, but what's that rattley noise under heavy throttle? Can't find anything loose underhood. Real annoying, occurs only under certain throttle conditions ...

Uh oh.

Probably spark knock.

Didn't recognize it at first because I haven't heard it since before the rebuild on my mom's old '86 Escort.

Spark knock == bad.

This tells me it is VERY important that I either swap advance limiters immediately, or at the very least swap the heavier advance springs back in for the time being. I do have another 351W distributor body, so maybe I'll see if it's good enough that I can prepare it to swap in.

Curse that stupid retaining clip that makes Duraspark advance limiters so darn hard to swap.

Very good news P72-mang! You need to post up some vids soon. Is it back to the "Lower Wacker Drive Cruise" level yet, or is it past that point? Might want to run some 91 or 93 octane soon. The retarded timing was for the sake of trying to pass emissions, and also to make 87 octane run happy with the 212* t-stat and summer heat. Did you swap in a 160* or 180* t-stat yet?

[p71towny]

swap to colder plugs and t stat and lett'er rip!

[Archangel]

13/18, Mike, which is still better than the 16/21 that came in my dizzy - had to swap them before returning the old one for a core. Also, I have a 10/15 advance limiter, don't remember where tis from, but I have it, if you need one and ain't got one - it can be in your possession by Friday

[1987cp]

No, I haven't swapped thermostats yet ... and I think colder plugs will be on my shopping list next time I'm allowed in a parts store. I do want to avoid buying expensive gas if it's at all reasonable to manage ....

No clue offhand on how it compares to the video from Chicago ... guess I'd have to sort of take a drive and watch the video back to back and try to make a subjective call based on sound or something!

I'm very interested to see how it likes things once I get the advance limiter swapped and am able to dial in a few degrees extra initial advance.

[Archangel]

I never said you have to pay me for that limiter, did I? You'll just owe me a beer or two at the next local meet, just like with those parts i sent you before, altho IIRC those actually equaled to some food ;-)

[1987cp]

13/18, Mike, which is still better than the 16/21 that came in my dizzy - had to swap them before returning the old one for a core. Also, I have a 10/15 advance limiter, don't remember where tis from, but I have it, if you need one and ain't got one - it can be in your possession by Friday

OK, I was thinking you had said 18 before, but I couldn't really read the stamp on that side of the thing itself. I'm thinking 46 degrees total advance at ~3000rpm just isn't the greatest thing in the world ..... :p

Thanks for the offer on the 10/15, but I have at least two that aren't currently being used ... just gotta get that durn snap clip outta there ... grrr.......

Speaking of which, what tool do you like to use on that annoying little retainer? I have a rather nice pair of snap-ring pliers that I've used to successfully reinstall one of said rings on the bench, and I experimented with making flat blades out of a pair of finishing nails to better grasp the ends, but kept losing my meager grip on the ring. It does occur to me that prying the limiter off seemed to be easier to accomplish on the bench with the distributor body in a vise and the shaft rotating freely .... on the other hand, I'm sure some folks (if not you personally) have a very good method for performing the swap in the car.

It also occurs to me that grooved snap-ring jaws would be better able to keep a grip on the retainer .... maybe I should see about modifying my flattened finishing nails.

[1987cp]

I never said you have to pay me for that limiter, did I? You'll just owe me a beer or two at the next local meet, just like with those parts i sent you before, altho IIRC those actually equaled to some food ;-)

hehe ... sure thing!

mmm.... beer ...... What's your favorite microbrew? Goodrich's in East Lansing, which you probably know about, has a nice selection, so I can probably bring along a six-pack when we meet up. I did notice they now have Shiner, which is good stuff, though my next pricier-beer purchase will probably be a six pack of Lion Lager.