Comp Ratio


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By Y block Billy - 15 Years Ago
Motor is 292 + .060" (301) decked to .010" in the hole, heads shaved .030 if I remember correctly, Best gaskets. Mummert clay Smith 272 cam advanced 4*.

I had a little delema today with a few heavy people in the car going up long hill twice it spewed water out the radiator cap and lost power for short moment. the motor only has about 500 miles and the first couple tanks of gas I used premium but the last one I used regular (87 octane in this area) Do I need to run Premium all the time?

I know it also had to do with timing because I had advanced it shortly before and it may have been too much. I noticed the distributor timing is much more touchy with this newly rebuilt motor than with the old ones I am used to running.

By Tom Compton - 15 Years Ago
Sounds all too familiar.  May not be your problem but ... My newly built 317 w/ unposted G heads and 9.5 + CR warped enough to pressurize the cooling system.  Luckily I still had the hood off and could see it as soon as it happened (7 pound radiator cap).  Solution was 113 heads to lower the CR a little and all 113s are posted.

Ted Eaton will read and advise soon but he will ask what heads you are using.

Good luck.  TC

By Y block Billy - 15 Years Ago
Yes I realised after posting I forgot to mention which heads, they are the dearborn small letter upside down G heads.
By Y block Billy - 15 Years Ago
I should also mention that I am running the C1TE rods which are the 312 length, with Ross forged racing pistons.

Am I too close to the edge?

By charliemccraney - 15 Years Ago
You're at about 9.1:1. That shouldn't be on the edge for premium and maybe mid grade. Regular might be pushing it. Was it knocking?
By 56 big window - 15 Years Ago
i always thought that since octane was normally high in the 1950s , consideration for that was used in the design process. . so i always use premium unleaded 93. 
By Ted - 15 Years Ago

I get the same 9.1:1 cr that Charlie gets which requires mid-grade fuel at a minimum.  Ignition timing may be the main culprit in your case though.  Besides the obvious of being just too much initial ignition advance, too much vacuum advance at cruise or light throttle opening would be at the top of the list and then next would be the specific curve attributes of the distributor.  Unless the car is driven a lot, then premium fuel would be suggested regardless to give you a hedge against fuel degradation when the car sits.

 

As Tom mentions, the loss of water from the radiator cap is exactly what his engine was doing when it went into detonation mode.  So the next question is “how much have the heads been milled?”.  You mention 0.030” but were these virgin heads before they were last milled?  Measuring the pads at the edge of the head may help to verify this.  Although the compression ratio is below what I would consider the threshold, heavy milling may have pushed the actual compression ratio over that limit.

By DANIEL TINDER - 15 Years Ago
56 big window (8/9/2010)
i always thought that since octane was normally high in the 1950s , consideration for that was used in the design process. . so i always use premium unleaded 93.




I've never had much luck finding out historically available octane #s on a date & geographic basis. 50s owner manuals only specified premium fuel if CR was high, never a specific octane or ethel lead requirement (I understand premium unleaded was common in some areas back to the 40s even). The fact that many 50s cars that were factory designated for premium will run quite well on todays regular makes me wonder. The legendary 100+ octane Sunoco may have been largely a 60s/muscle car era phenomenon?
By Y block Billy - 15 Years Ago
Thanks for the info guy's. I am almost certain the heads were virgin but I will reconfirm. I did change the oil for the first time since the break in of the motor and placed it in a cleaned large aluminum baking pan and then fished around the oil with a srong magnet for signs of metal and came up zero.

I have a buddy with a distributor machine to fine the distributor if I can get it out of him, I know thats half the problem, I set it up with a light at 8-10 BTDC and when I connect the vacuum hose to the distributor it jumps to 45-50 at idle. I need to go through it.