I have a 1950 Ford V-8 and put a new intake manifold with a Hollry 350 CFM carburetor. And when I accelerate I had no power at the high end and it was suggested to get one of Bubba's distributor and I did. Now I have good power at the high end. But the engine is now running hot and it did not before. I have the dwell set at 25 and the timing is right on. Any Ideas? By the way the distributor is great except you have to remove the distributor cap to adjust the timing you can't get to the timing screw with the cap on. also adjusting the dwell is dangerous because the window for adjusting the dwell is bottom right as you face the distributer and getting you hand and screw driver in there put you hand next to the fan blade. Thanks for any input. Jerry
guys say timing to far advanced will cause a heat issue. I also know a lean fuel mixture will cause a heat issue..... From a logical stand point, if it didn't do it before, its gotta be in what you changed....
Timing errors will cause heat problems. What is "right on"? Have you tried experimenting with advancing or retarding? The engine is making more power now so it's also making more heat. Is the cooling system up to it? What about fuel? What do the plugs look like after a top end blast and quick shutdown?
OK I just adjusted the fuel mixture with a vac*** gauge and set both sides. I have it running and will see if it heats up . The timing lines up with the pointer and cut in the fly wheel. I have some new spark plugs and will change them next. Thanks for any help. Jerrry
Use an allen key for the dwell. I believe it should be at 28-32. So it would be a little off at 25 and would change your timming. It should use the same dwell as the chevy as only the advance is changed. I had to grind down a shocket to loosen the hold down but still need to remove the cap. Also you should verify that the pully is the correct one for the pointer.
You can set the dwell at cranking speed. Remove the cap, and have someone turn the motor over for you. That way the fan will not be spinning at high speeds. Increasing the dwell will decrease the timing if you make no other changes. The mixture screws are idle and early transition only, they won't affect acceleration or cruise speed by much
OK I will increase the dwell and see what happens. I just ran it for 45 min. at idle and the temp. got to about 200 degrees and seem to be holding, before with the other distributor it was running about 185 degrees. Thanks and I will increase the dwell but I have to go poision some gr*** first. Thanks Jerry
I have the dwell adjusted to 33 degrees and I have it idealing now to see what the temperature does. I had to adjust the timing. But it run ruff at higher eacclerations. Thanks Jerry
Reset the dwell to 29-30 and timing and now it runs good at idle and acclerated. The temperature is still higher then before it back to 200 degrees. I guess tomorrow I change the spark plugs and try draining the radiator and taking out the thermostat. Thanks for the help. Jerry
Which vacuum port are you using off the new carb, manifold or ported? It should be on the manifold port, and disconnected/plugged when you are setting timing.
It is the new distributor from Bubba'S hotrod shop it does not require a vac*** it is centrifical. I have all the ports plugged off. Thanks Jerry
If it has no vacuum advance, then it may have more centrifugal advance than you'd expect to see in the same distributor WITH a vacuum advance unit. In addition to your initial timing you'll need to pay attention to your total timing as well. You might need to back initial timing down a few degrees to keep the total timing in specs. For most street cars, vacuum advance provides better idling and driveability. What's your manifold vacuum at idle?
Wow guys we have covered everything here! Our distributors come with the dwell set at 30 degrees and broke in on a machine to allow some driving before ever needing adjustment. 25 degrees would be off 5 degrees which would change timing at the balancer 10 degrees and should be adjusted. Every unit comes with a instruction sheet to install a stud in place of the mounting bolt to enable adjusting the timing better. All of distributors shipped for some time have the centrifugal advance set at 16 degrees At 2500 rpm. Distributor placement can typically be placed so everything is easy to get to by installing one tooth off , one way or the other. I will look at our test engine and check hold down place mention Monday and advise further. At this time we have shipped 765 of these distributors and most have cooled the engine down, never causing extra heat.....
Following that line of thinking, if there is no vacuum advance on this distributor, but the previous one had it, then it stands to reason that the timing while cruising is not as far advanced as it used to be. I believe that retarded timing can contribute to hot running. So I would definitely check the timing against stock specs and see if it is off.
Correct, providing that only the vacuum advance has been removed and the mechanical advance has not been modified. But I don't think it's uncommon for mechanical advance only disrtibutors to have a bit more advance added to compensate for the lost vacuum advance. Retarded timing can cause overheating, but too much total timing might have it running on the edge of detonation. Though I suspect that flatheads are kind of forgiving in this regard unless highly modified. With Bubba's specs above it should be an easy matter, knowing the initial advance, to figure out what the total advance is. But I don't know what kind of "m***aging" Bubba does to the advance on his distributors, or what the original stock specs were.
Bubba did my 49,,,,,it ran hot all the time until I switched,,,ran like a bare aftwards and never over heated again....tweked the timing, after install, was good to go.. and it pulled good all the way to 60mph... I'm a beliver...
Some truisms IMO 1."Almost Any streetable" engine will be more efficient with a load sensitive advance. 2. If you retard the advance 10 degrees from ideal at 2500 RPM EGT goes up, try it yourself, use a temp gun, take it to 2500 in neutral and start retarding. 3. On a Flathead Ford V8 the Exhaust transfer extra temp to the water jacket more so than other designs. 4, Compared to heavy load heat rejection this should cause higher temps at cruise but not overheating. Full load heat rejection into the cooling system is much higher than the difference from higher EGT at cruise without load sensitive advance. jm nickel?
If I offended anyone I appoligize that was not my intent. I am sure the points were set at 30 degree and I probably changed it. But now it back on 29 or 30 degrees and all the change have made no difference and maybe 20 degrees temperature is ok but it is just different and it concern me. But I thank eveyone for there input. Jerry
On the theory that 50% of distributor problems are carb problems, what are the chances the 4-barrel is set up too lean? Sounds like you changed both at the same time?
How do you check if it is too lean? The only thing I did was have the carb rebuilt then after it was installed I adjusted the float level and the ideal mixture with a vac*** gauge. Thanks Jerry
Block the throttle about 2500 RPM. Tip the choke blade closed to see if the RPM goes up. If it goes up more than a hundred RPM you should probably go up a jet size. You can also use propane (Carefully!!) for the temporary enrichment. This isn't perfect as you are not at the same load as cruising but it is a good ball park check. Hoop
Ok I got the idle up to 2500 and tip the choke blade closed and the idle went way down not up. Not sure what that means. Jerry
By the way I took out the thermostats and they look new but ran the engine without the thermostats and still running hot. Jerry
It's not lean! You have to tip it slowly, but if it is lean it will increase as you are richening the mixture. Of course if you close it that will kill the engine. Another test is to pull a vacuum hose off like pcv or brake booster if you have one. If it speeds up you are rich. On a properly set up Quadrajet we checked the carburetor setting by running it at 2500 in closed loop. If we unplugged the solenoid that was full rich and it gained about 250 RPM. Then we drove it full lean (by grounding the solenoid) and it would drop about 250 RPM. So to restate if we add fuel while at 2500 by slightly closing the choke and the engine speeds up then it is on the lean side. If we add air with a vacuum leak and it speeds up then it has extra fuel. If it does neither it's pretty close. It's just a quick check for a rich or lean condition o the cruise circuit but it works. Another experiment is to add 5 degrees timing and see if it likes the timing. You want to be almost spark knocking under low speed high load. Just do 1 thing at a time. Hoop
I pulled the vac*** hose and it slow down a bit. If I add 5 degrees to the timing does that generally make it run cooler. Now it is still running hot with the new centrifucial distributer. The car run good at all speeds it just get hot. Thanks Jerry
If it's getting hotter at idle speed, maybe it's missing that extra bit of timing that a vacuum advance can provide. If it's getting hotter at driving speeds it might need more total timing. All of this is ***uming that the overheating is the result of an ignition timing issue. It's a bit of a juggling act balancing initial timing, mechanical advance, vacuum advance (if applicable) and total timing. And you'll likely have to deal with a little compromise somewhere in the mix.
Ok sounds like your carb is in the ballpark. There are a couple of things, if you have a pressurized system 200 is not hot. Advancing the timing makes the exhaust gas cooler and transfers less heat to the cooling system. A typical Flathead curve might be 4 initial plus 20 mechanical = 24 degrees mechanical timing plus 10 degrees at light load.. If you have a dial back timing light you can check the timing at 3500 and it should be 25 or so. The guy who did If you advance the timing 5 degrees and the engine runs better and cooler that will tell you something. Since Bubba says there is 16 mechanical you would need to run more initial anyway, say 8 - 10. Keep adjusting carefully one thing at a time, noting the effect, you will get there.
No problem Jerry, one problem you might run into is a bit of a hard cranking with more initial. I'll bet you a cold one it will like the timing and cool off !!!
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