I have a 56 lincoln with a 368 and have changed distributor to a 57 style and carb to a holley 600 but for some reason I can only get 16 inches of vacum at  idle. I disconnected the brake booster  to check for leaks there  but I only found very small vacum leak at carb base. Could  this leak cause me to lose this much vacuum?

16” Hg vacuum at idle sounds good from this end.  What rpm are you checking the vacuum at?

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Foot on the brake and in drive?  Mine [292]  is about that.



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

700 rpm i thought  i was supposed to have around 18 to 20 inches for the power brakes to work properly

16 will work with your brakes but you should be close to 20 on a stock engine.did you ever check it before.slow in time will do it as well.

How is the initial timing set now that you have the newer distributor in place? Because the Fords have the ported vacuum set-up, idle can be a bit retarded on spark. Using 10º initial is popular on the smaller Y's.

if you watch the vacuum gauge while judiciously turning the dizzy - you might get some useful information. 

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

iam at 5 degrees initial timeing