I really need to upgrade to and Hei like you did. Everyone seems to do that./ I have new points, and complete tune up. Actually runs very smooth, for except a very slight rough idle in gear, and that fluttering once in a while, when under throttle demand.
Yours looks nice. I need to get some photos of mine. I do have the 4 blade fan. I didn't know if going to the three blade or electric would do much. I see a lot are doing it though.
my stock air cleaner was missing the lid. So I put a open air filter on. One of those Mr. gasket chrome ones from summit. I dunno if that hurt anything doing that. As in....changing the way the carb acts?
Although when I got the car, it was worse. I got it top run better. Just started to do the fluttering recently while under acceleration.
Yeah, for street performance the HEI is pretty good from the factory. Factory coil is all that is needed.
Yeah, all the car 250 inline sixes came with the fixed 4-blade fan from the factory until they discontinued them after 1979. The truck motors came with the same fixed 4-blade fan but had a larger diameter water pump pulley it was mounted to reduce the drag of the accessories. When they went to a 3-blade clutch fan for trucks (I don't remember which year) they used the smaller pulley from the cars. The least parasitic drag combo would be the early truck pulley with electric fans, next best would be the truck pulley and clutch fan. I haven't been able to find an early inline truck pulley, with grooves in the right spot yet for PS and alternator. When I switched from fixed fan to electric fans for a short while, I saw a jump of almost 3mpg in fuel efficiency.....so yeah big difference. I switched to the clutch fan temporarily while I sorted out the electrical issues as I couldn't find a switched wire for the regulator, and just had it wired to the battery and always on but that was too hard on the battery.
Open element air cleaner flows better, but it's sucking hot engine compartment air, so it's mixed bag. My factory THERMAC air cleaner actually has a hose that draws cooler air from in front of the radiator support. But it is right behind the left turn signal. So I removed the assembly, created a duct with reflective inside and a cut out for the turn signal housing, and now i have a stealth ram air duct. The flexible 3" duct I got to replace the factory paper one also allows a pretty direct feed of the ducted air to the air cleaner. My air cleaner probably doesn't flow as well as your open element, but with my K&N filter and cool ram air ducted to it, it's probably probably a tie between the two as far as power and fuel efficiency goes.
I'm just wondering if you capped the vacuum port that feeds the factory air cleaner? The vacuum that actuates the flap in the snorkel is the full manifold port on the bottom of the Monojet. It has a metal Y port with one angled up to supply vacuum to the THERMAC, and one pointing straight out that the distributor vacuum advance is attached to. Did you cap it off or just break the second port off and push the vac adv hose all the way onto it?
Yeah cleaning up the rust and grime is lot of work. You have to get in there with degreaser, toothbrushes, rags, and elbow grease. Sand and rustoleum the rusty parts. It's best to remove as many parts as possible to clean and really get in there. Plus when they are off, it is easier to repaint them. The gold cadmium parts are best replaced or just painted with cast pant. The aluminum and unpainted metal can be clear coated once the oxidation and rust is removed, or painted with aluminum paint and cast iron paint. I use the cast-blast paint for the hinges and other items that have that phosphate coating. Rattle can Chevy engine orange is ok for the engine, but the parts that are close to the exhaust manifold will definitely burn off after awhile. It's best to remove the valve cover, engine lift eyelets, side covers, water neck, even water pump to clean paint those separately. The rest is removing hoses, belts, and wires; or moving and masking them, and spraying as much of the engine as you can reach. When you go to remove head and intake, it's better to paint those with a spray gun and proper engine paint so that they last. That's what I plan to do as the only way to get the GM corporate blue is the canned paint, they actually put Chrysler blue in the rattle cans and label it GM blue.......there's definitely a difference.
