Biohazard

Got the car to where it would run warm, no problem. But it took a lot of fudging with the choke thermostat. More, I think, than it should have. While she was idling, I wanted to see what was up with the PCV valve. Pulled the hose from the valve which killed the motor instantly, of course. Plugged the line, started her up, and she ran (idled) like a champ. Noticeably better than with the valve connected. BUT...wouldn't let me give her any throttle. So, for now, I'm leaving her alone and getting some parts on order:

New PCV valve. (will replace hose, too)
New choke thermostat. (just plucked a NOS one from eBay)

Other fiddling I got done today....
Set points gap to 17 (it was a lot less than that)
Lubed the pivots for the points and the advancer.
Set timing to around 25. May change after the new parts go in.
Finally installed that new PCV grommet.



The old one had to be muscled out as it felt more like hard plastic than rubber.

Hello,
I would like to recommend a couple things on tunning.

For starters, lets get your timing right. Setting your initial at 25 is way to high.Just a guesstimate, but thats putting your total timing around 45. Not good. Without reading your entire post, it looks like you have a stock, or mild 318. Most small blocks run best at 12-14 initial 34-36 total timing.

Vacuum Advance. Your distributor looks pretty old.Im going to go out on a limb and say the vacuum advance diaphragm is toast. So at this point, take the vacuum advance out of the picture, and just plug the port on the carb where it goes. You can visit vacuum advance tunning down the road. My recommendation, would be to get a nice rebuilt distrbutor, or even go to electronic.

Looks like you have a Carter BBD. Make sure you know how to set the a/f ratio on it at idle. As well as setting the correct idle.

Assuming you have good compression, there are no vacuum leaks, all the ignition parts are in order, and its getting fuel, your car should now idle much better.