Timing/carb gurus?

[Adam]

My dad's car is a 1980 Volare Road Runner. I'm trying to get it running better (have a few days off and am bored, plus the neighbors won't complain about the noise because they're not home, )

The engine is a 360 bored 0.060" over, compression is around 10-10.5:1, cam is a MP .484 (the "improved drivability" with less overlap), with a single plane MP intake, Accel coil, Heddman headers, and a dual 2.5" exhaust. The car is a 4-speed Overdrive with 3.23:1 sure grip rear and approx. 26" tall tires. The carb is a 700 or 750 double pumper Holley (can't remember which).

I've been reading about timing, and with the vaccuum advance disconnected, I have it set at 14* initial. The mechanical advance at 3000rpm brings it up to about 30-31*. It runs a lot better and has more power than it did before, but I am still of the opinion that this engine in this car should go sideways if you mat it in first gear. It starts to sputter at about 5,000rpm.

A few questions:
1. where should the initial and mechanical advance be approximately as a starting point?
2. stupid question, but is the vaccuum advance supposed to be hooked up to direct manifold vaccuum??

Thanks,
Adam

[bOb shingler]

the vacuum line from the distributor gets hooked to the fitting on the passenger side of the primary metering block. set the total advance to 36 degrees with the fitting on the metering block plugged.

[Adam]

Thanks bOb, i'll give it a shot right now

[Adam]

It is greatly improved again. I guess iwth that cam it doesn't start really making power until 2500 or so....I think a set of 3.91s would really wake this thing up.

I think there are still some carb tuning issues. It doesn't return all the way to idle all the time, stays at like 1200-1300 unless i "almost stall it" when stopped by releasing the clutch with my foot on the brakes. The old man was talking about putting the vaccum secondaries carb back on for fuel mileage (before today it was getting a combined city/highway 8-10mpg and we do actually drive it a lot, and Sunoco 94 is $1.48 a liter) so I'm not going to tinker too much with the carb.

But yeah. it's definitely improved. Thanks for the tip! I think my dad will be happy when he gets home from work and I tell him to go for a spin and get into the loud pedal.



Adam