Today's experiments (not much time to spend):
- Pulled the valve cover, was able to turn the springs with effort when the rocker arms were loose, but with effort. Nothing seems broken. Steady vacuum speaks to that. Lots of hissing when I turn the crank by hand, FWIW. Oh, there was some orange paint on the valves and the cover seemed glued on almost (RTV?). Man, now it'll leak for sure since I didn't replace the gasket.
- Dwell 32degrees, manual says 31-34. RPM about 700.
- Timing 2BTDC, so adjusted to 4 BTDC as manual says.
- plugged PVC and automatic transmission vacuum lines, took it for a drive. Had a few minor pops and a bit of hesitation on acceleration. Curious about potential rust holes in the metal line reason for plugging those lines. The vent from the valve cover was breathing tons of smoke, lots of blow-by without that PVC connected to help clean it up. I've got to do something better than just let that vent...
- plugged vacuum advance (yes, I know, it won't run well). I got lots of backfires, sputtering, and almost a stall. *just like it was behaving before*.
Now, I know that I didn't give the pre-vacuum advance that full of a test drive, but it really misbehaved without it. But I always thought too much advance causes backfire through the carb and too much retard causes backfire through the exhaust. With good vacuum on the manifold, it seems to be pointing to the ignition.
gbauer, with all the lines removed and plugged and good consistent vacuum, it doesn't seem that there would be a leak, would it?
It's seems to be pointing to the ignition, what do you think?
Mark
