Timing & Gas Milage

[Rich72C10]

Today I decided to dive back into my distributor after getting settled with I had done back earlier in the year. While I had hoped to be running with my rebuilt carb, that was a bust. Though my general MPG is 13~14 MPG on long trips with the one my brother rebuilt last year and my timing setup.

I am still at 12° Initial timing and not long ago when I punted my truck to the shop to try and get that rebuilt carb going, she came back to me set at around 4~6° Initial timing. Not sure why they did that but she drove like the crap. 12° seems to be my happy place.

That gets me to what I been thinking about changing, the distributor springs. I have been running Silver/Copper since day one of my new distributor. What I noticed is when I reach 1.5k my engine wakes up, like a 1/3 of the HP came online - it's like a surge of power. So I decided to change out the silver spring out to have Copper/Copper springs. This brings in more timing and then maxes out at 20k.

Well, that 1.5k surge is completely gone, I can no longer feel anything remotely like a transition of engine power kicking in. I have more pep and my power is smooth as silk throughout my RPMs. After a test drive around the neighborhood and getting on the interstate, where I punched it while getting on the HWY, it's just all around fabulous. I couldn't find anywhere I lost anything, only gained better performance and a better feeling ride.

I might try Silver / Silver at some point but I couldn't image I'd be happier with that setup.