On the road again

Post date: Sep 5, 2012 10:48:49 PM

Did some checkout after last week's adventure. Engine turned over smoothly all the way, compression was 160 to 175 on all cylinders. Bullet dodged.

Got a replacement fan blade, put in the new one row alum rad that I used when the engine was out of the car, and water started gushing from a small hole in a tube.

If it's not one thing, it's another, right?

Went back to Pep Boys to get another one (Spectra CU161), and what was in the box was a three row copper with a bashed in filler neck. Same part number. Go figure.

Get a chinese rad from Oreilly, bolt everything back together, and it's OK. Got another 30 miles on it.

Then spent some time with the ignition problems. Basically running the new dist gives erratic spark with the old coil and the new coil, but it's much worse with the new coil. So back to the old dist and old coil. Initial advance has to be around 36deg!!!! to get a good idle (45deg with the vacuum engaged), and this is still the stock advance, so that's crazy.

Got the Innovate LC-2 installed and welded in a bung on each pipe. I only have one controller and sensor, but put in two bungs so I can move back and forth just to be paranoid. Turns out it's running pig rich - 12:1 at cruise, 10:1 with any acceleration. It only likes to idle at 13:1. Surges a bit at 14:1 and dies with anything leaner.

One thing that's running around in my head is the new Pertronix stuff is running from a new wire I ran to the fuse panel. Just a long 16ga jumper going to the coil positive, then the choke and dizzy from there. The choke pulls just over an amp. I may throw in some relays to separate everything and see if that changes it.

I'm not suggesting it makes sense, just that I might as well try it.

Haven't had the heart to sit on hold with Pertronix yet. The module was replaced in June, and coils only have a 30 day warranty. *sigh*

Still holding out for that to work. If it doesn't, I'm tempted to go for a cheap HEI and move on with life.

I'm hoping some more tweaking on the idle will get a more realistic ignition advance. Still pretty sure the balancer has accurate indicators. At this point, the idle screw is in only 1/2 turn from full close (right where I like it), primary blades have no holes, idle air bypass is at 0.082", and idle screws are out three turns (idle screw holes enlarged to, IIRC, 0.110"). So idle is still iffy, but has great throttle response. Feels a little underpowered, but not too surprising given how rich it is. I'm still being cautious as I'd expect all that advance would lead to some terrible detonation. No indication of that yet. Starting is interesting - it'll probably eat starter pinions for lunch - but no real issues once underway.