GenLee1970
Well-Known Member
Ok, update time.
Thanks for all of your responses and suggestions. I'm pretty sure I addressed or at least looked into all of them, corrected as needed, and I think I've got this thing pretty well dialed in. I even bought a #39 and #52 drill bit (actually the closest fractional size according to conversion chart) and set the choke pull off and cam linkage by the book. They weren't that far off.
I think all of these helped to some degree. But the thing that made the biggest difference was letting it warm up for a minute or two. I'll start it up and slowly raise the idle with my foot to 2,000. Within a minute the idle increases to 2300 with no further pressure on the pedal, as the engine warms and internal cold friction goes away. The engine still has to fight cold friction from the rest of the driveline for a few miles once I start driving, but it has made a huge difference. It was 15 deg today and I took the car out after the brief warm up, and while it used more gas than it would on a summer day, it was nowhere near the pig it once was. They always say and idling engine gets 0 mpg, but I think this is once case where it helps.
Thanks again
Thanks for all of your responses and suggestions. I'm pretty sure I addressed or at least looked into all of them, corrected as needed, and I think I've got this thing pretty well dialed in. I even bought a #39 and #52 drill bit (actually the closest fractional size according to conversion chart) and set the choke pull off and cam linkage by the book. They weren't that far off.
I think all of these helped to some degree. But the thing that made the biggest difference was letting it warm up for a minute or two. I'll start it up and slowly raise the idle with my foot to 2,000. Within a minute the idle increases to 2300 with no further pressure on the pedal, as the engine warms and internal cold friction goes away. The engine still has to fight cold friction from the rest of the driveline for a few miles once I start driving, but it has made a huge difference. It was 15 deg today and I took the car out after the brief warm up, and while it used more gas than it would on a summer day, it was nowhere near the pig it once was. They always say and idling engine gets 0 mpg, but I think this is once case where it helps.
Thanks again
