I want to ask this just incase if someone knows where I should go directly to correct this problem.

I recently topped off the transmission and was able to get the car to go into gear.  Problem is the engine tends to have a roughness to it at idle in gear vs in park at idle.

So far I have the engine set at 600rpm in gear and 800rpm in park.  The valve lash is set at 0.019" hot.  The point gap is set at 0.015" if I remember correctly.  The dwell at 600rpm idle is 29* which is 1/2* more than the factory spec.  I have not checked timing as I had the engine running really good up till I started to put the engine in gear and found the roughness.  The engine isn't missing, I am just wondering if age and mileage has gotten to the engine and I need to bump the idle speed in gear up some but I had the engine idling at 600 in park before and it idled smooth.

Has anyone ran into this before and know what should be checked out?  I wont be messing with the engine till next weekend which will probably be just me checking timing and maybe even playing with timing a little.


1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi