Hey all, My '53 Buick Special was on the lift at the exhaust shop the other day, and my exhaust guy said the pipe was running too hot...so I did a comparison with my '65s. My Skylark and Mustang, after shutting down, had cool tailpipes within 10 minutes, while the '53 took 20. My plugs seem fine, a little sooty last time I checked, but normally good. It doesn't seem to run lean...could the fact that these straight 8s run only about 18-20 degrees of total timing have anything to do with it? Am I (mildly) concerned about nothing? It runs fine, just wanted to bounce it off the HAMB...
I would think if the plugs didn't look lean and your timing was close enough......you have nothing to worry about. I'm curious as to why the guy felt that your exhaust is too hot?
Don't trust your plugs. They can get soot from a rich idle before you have time to turn it off. Either get a plug reading by running at cruise rpm for 30 seconds under load and cutting engine/going nuetral at the same time, or install a air/fuel monitor. They are cheap enough and you can just lay it in the glove box or something until you are done with it.
Oh, the car had blued the clamps...I had some fuel pump problems and the car overheated before I had the radiator boiled out, so I think it happened one of those times...I'll check the plugs again, thanks!