Spent Christmas early afternoon driving the 57 Fairlane around town with my 14 year old son who has helped me tremendously in bringing this thing back together.  Still have doubts that I have it "dialed in" completly, and would appreciate some suggestions on a fix.  Here's the dope:

rebuilt 272; all back to stock...

rebuilt 2 bbl carb...

updated Petronix module and flame thrower...

starts up real easy, good oil pressure (60-plus at idle and during driving, dropping to 40-60 when warmed up; temp stays a steady 150-180)...

the concern: feels like its dragging a boat anchor; doesn't seem to want to accelerate; not a real "stumble" when accelerating, but just feels like it is "choked"; hits about 55 or so eventually, but won't do it at much more than a "gentle" pace...

wondering if my timing is off, perhaps... perhaps my carb needs to have the jets adjusted...

I know its not a race car, but it just ought to accelerate and run better... I'm sure of it...

am I dreaming? am I deluded? 

any ideas??  its sounds great thru new duals and glasspacks... just needs some more "oomph"... know what I mean??

help!

thanks,Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Timing means ALOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Set timing at or about 10 to 12 degrees btc with the vacuum advance unpluged. Then with the timing light watch the timing mark to see if it moves as the engine speed is brought up alittle, it dos'nt take much to see if it's working. If it's not moving then the weights may be stuck in the distributer and will need to be fixed. If it's working reconnect the vacuum line and see how it runs. If still not doing well then it will be in other tuning sections such as valve adjustments, points, condenser, carb, gas filter if it has one. My gut is sounds like the timing. Good Luck

-Gary Burnette-

Just wondering... what did you set your lash at?

Brian

Cylinder Index = 84

Current Experiment = `57 Tbird, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Mark:

I don't remember details of your damper, but if it is original the ring with the tiiming marks may have slipped, giving you a wrong timing mark.  Your description sounds like the timing is retarded.  You can dial it in by driving.  Loosen the distributor clamp just enough that you can turn the distributor with a little effort.  Turn the distrubutor a little bit counterclockwise, then test drive to see if it's better.  Try a little more advance, drive it again, etc.  During the test drives, give it half throttle or more in 3rd gear and listen for ping.  When you get ping, back up the distributor until the ping is gone.  That's about optimum timing.  You can check it with a light and if the damper ring has slipped the marks will not be in the correct place.  You can re-mark the ring for future reference, but if it slips again your new marks won't be right either.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Mark:

OOOOPPPSS!  I should have said turn the distributor CLOCKWISE until you get a ping, then back off.  Sorry.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

thanks for the ideas...

new, rebuilt damper purchased from J Mummert, so that should be good...

believe I will try the "clockwise" adjust on the dist.

appreciate it!

Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Mark,

   I came in in the middle of this conversation so bear with me. If your car still has the dampner in the exhaust pipe that is used to speed the warm up and it has frozen shut with rust then you will have the condition that you discribe. If the valve in the exhaust pipe ( just after the right hand exhaust manifold ) is not free it can be replaced or removed. Pete

damper mentioned refers to the harmonic balancer / crank  pulley whereon are located the timing marks; the exhaust part you reference is MIA on mine and living in the Houston area, warm up is no problem, so I left it off when rebuilding the engine...

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX

Double check that the mechanical advance in the distributor is working.  This is easily done with a timing light hooked up and speeding up the engine (in neutral or park) while watching the timing marks at the damper for movement.  Be sure to unplug the vacuum advance when checking the mechanical advance portion of the distributor.  Once it’s been verified that the mechanical advance is working, then hook up the vacuum advance and check it similarly for additional movement of the marks on the damper as the engine is being speeded up.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

ok... first loosened and moved the dist "clockwise"; this increased the idle speed a bit; drove it with no appreciable difference in performance...

next, with timing light attached, there is no movement of the timing mark when the engine is speeded up... either with the vacuum line attached or unhooked... so, does this indicate that both the centrifugal and vacuum advance "systems" are not operating??

the best description of the way it accelerates is "sluggish", and it feels like a low vibration of sorts throughtout the car under acceleration...; not to the point of feeling like its "missing"... just not as smooth as it should be.

can the above possible source of the problem (no advance) be attacked with the dist mounted on the engine??

can someone point me to a thread that could "walk" me thru the fix...??

thanks again, Mark

"God Bless Texas"location: Houston,TX