What Will Give Me The Best Performance And Economy

Hubby has decided to do a tune-up on my 80 today. It has a Weber 32/36, original distributor with amplifier, and RN9YC Champion Plugs and he does put a new rotor button on. No emission other than the hose on the back of the valve cover goes to the charcoal cannister and the hose on the front driver's side goes to the carburetor.

He says he has always set the timing at 15BTC with vacuum line capped and engine running at 1500 RPM. Also said he gaps the plugs at 30.

What would you set the timing at?

What would you gap the plugs at?

Anything else you can think of?

With todays high gas prices and me using this car everyday I want to get the best mileage I can and I've never even checked it in the past. Looking forward to reading your replies.


Your turn :)

I use the stock gap (25) but can't see how that would make much difference so long as you have the voltage to fire it.

Check the idle - make sure it isn't too high.

Check that the engine isn't running too cool - a cooler engine burns more fuel.

New fuel filter?

Tire pressure?

for most efficent fuel economy there is nothing like feedback insturmentation .
some say a good driver can get better milage on an out of tune car than a poor driverr on an in tune car , that may not be totally true ..
there are contests these days to see who can get the best milage ,
lots of air in the tires will help , reduces rolling resistance, time your driving to never hit a red light, time your driving to never apply brake , always coast to a stop, drive at most fuel efficent speed , to be determined in these for me , usually in top gear at the lowest efficent RPM would that be about 2800 ? or 3200 ? just on the top side of torque power curve,

the feedback insturmentation i speak of is a intake vacuum gage , i got a 19 $ one from JCwit , looks good , seems to work , with the vacuum gauage never apply throttle such that the vacuum goes below 10 IN HG , strive to cruse at 15 IN HG.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermiler

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20706595/

http://www.trackyourgasmileage.com/

If hubby likes projects, convert to fuel injection. There is a lot of info here on this site to make that happen. I did mine for less than $500 complete.

In general, fuel injection adds performance, reliability and efficiency --ALL at ONCE.

Plugs can handle that gap Mac, it's got electronic ignition. I seem to remember .032 or .035 as the gap spec for that ignition. Timing can vary depending on how it's curved...Jeff I'm sure can chime in on that. Timing at idle or at 3000 rpm will be very different depending on the advace curve of the dizzy. You also don't need to block the advance on that car if your vacuum advance switch is operational and still connected as vacuum advance is only applied when in 4th gear, otherwise it's blocked anyway. Just my little informed 2 cents. It would be interesting to see what you are getting for mileage now, then tweak some things and see the result.

Hubby already nows best, can't do better then that.

Get rid of any extra weight - don't carry stuff (golf clubs, etc.) in boot.

(I'm even thinking of losing the top, windshield wipers, heater, go to
single battery, etc. - I don't drive in the rain.)

Hi Naomi,
Bill's on the right track. Keep the contacts (rotor) in good shape, plug gaps good and keep leaning out the carb, until the performance starts to drop off, then richen it back up a bit. Make sure the valve lash is set correctly too.

My B was running the best it ever has (for me) last fall just before I put it away. I had just re-done the valve lash and on our way home from Watkins Glen (5 hours at about 110 Kph, a little over 60 Mph) I managed 37 miles to the gallon. (Imperial)
And that was pulling a little 4 x 4 utility trailer.

I never thought I'd get even close to 30 like a lot of the members here have posted but I kept at the carbs (HS 4s) and the timing, and it worked out well.

See you this weekend! :)