Where are you running the vacuum from for the dizzy? If manifold go to ported.

 

Ported carb vacuum.

 

That's where I think you should be. So about all I can suggest is what others have - lower the RPM and/or reduce the initial lead.

 

Dimora, have you checked MPG yet? I realize that wasn't the intent of this build, but I'm just wondering what this build did for your mileage? The skinny pedal probably still spends most of its time close to the floor, gotta love having new power!

 

Do you have your wideband hooked up yet?
If so, then get the idle mixture ratio set right. Then you should be able to reduce the idle RPM, and eliminate the run-on.

 

Sorry I've been a slacker lately and haven't been on, guys...A couple of follow-ups:

7.09 MPG is my current average. Yes, I have a VERY heavy foot. It's probably rich, once I get a wideband in, I'll re-jet my carb. All that is around town and stop-light-to-stoplight with lots of WOT action. I figure it would do MUCH better on the freeway. I get 9.8 around town if I don't floor it. I've seen 10.12 average if I drive it to/from work which has some freeway cruising. I don't have road-trip numbers to share yet.

Not yet, It is an Innovate Motorsports G3 with LC-1 controller, and it has been a piece of junk...it needs to go back to Innovate for RMA...again.

Oh...and IDLE STALLING PROBLEM SOLVED!

I had a problem where the car was stalling a lot at idle - particularly when I would run the A/C or turn on the headlights. It was weak spark produced by my MSD #8350 distributor. Full report:

From day one of installation, the car has been a bit hard to start and the engine would start bucking, miss, and die anytime the battery voltage was a bit low, the headlights were on, or I ran the A/C. A triple combo of A/C on, headlights on, wipers on and at a stop at a traffic light was a sure-recipe for a stall. After over a year of troubleshooting (I knew I had spark), adding the matching MSD Blaster-II coil, all new plug wires, new Pingel fuel filter, I rebuilt my Edelbrock Performer carb, added a new Summit racing fuel pump, etc...I decided to add an MSD #6425 ignition this morning. The car now runs like a champ! No more stalls...perfect (lumpy idle due to cam), with all electrical accessories on. The problem was what I had suspected: At lower voltage, this ready-to-run distributor puts out a weak spark (or misses entirely) - much worse than the OEM DuraSpark II setup! So...my advice is run OEM and re-curve it, or if going aftermarket - buy the Pro Billet MSD distributor for your application that is NOT ready-to-run and spend the extra $230 or so for the MSD ignition box. This thing was a nightmare as a stand-alone product. One more tidbit - make sure you bend the top tab on your rotor upward so it makes a nice, tight contact with your distributor cap center-button - mine was not sufficiently bent out-of-the-box (and I evidently forgot to bend it myself) because upon inspection, I noticed I had also experienced some electrical arcing, as some black deposits were on the rotor-button area...totally my fault, but do double-check on your application and give it a bend for solid contact.

 

Thanks. Good to know about the ignition, which reinforces my intent to run DS-II. And, by the way, my AEM wideband AFR gauge works well, although the tach input needs filtered. But the ability to show both vacuum and AFR at the same time and record it for up to two hours is excellent. It let me dial my Eddy 1406 right in on Rusty.

 

DS-II works great! In hindsight, re-curving my OEM style distributor would certainly have been fine. With that said, the MSD dizzy is built very well and the stop-bushings, spring assortment, choice of vac advance or lockout, etc. make it very easy to install and curve. I don't regret the MSD setup, but don't do it without the MSD ignition box.

 

You would run the MSD dizzy with the DS-II box, huh? I'll have to look at that dizzy. I realize the Ford dizzy is a pain to get into to recurve it. I used to play with Chevy dizzies and they were easy to tune, but Fords are hard to get down to the springs, etc.

 

. WOW! ... Haven't seen an email from this great thread in my inbox for a long time!

. I suspect with your bump in compression ratio and mild street cam, you could cruise at 15+ MPG with a close tune...

. My carb'd Chevy with HEI usually starts instantly hot or cold... don't even hear the starter or hear it crank... but my carb'd 351M Duraspark always has to crank over a while before it seems to have any life to it... I'm always worrying while it's cranking if it's going to start, since I'm used to the Chevy, but it does usually start reliably, especially in winter, which is good since it has a snowplow... I'm suspecting the ignition, like to get rid of the big external boxes and all that wiring, been considering HEI conversion either by distributor or by just the cheap, super dependable HEI module as detailed here:

How To Convert A Ford Or Chrysler Ignition To GM HEI - Car Craft
.

 

I run a Ford EDIS conversion with 8 Delco D585 coils on my EFI 434. It eliminates the failure prone parts like the distributor cap & rotor. The plug wires are short as well. It never misses a beat up to a beyond my shift point @ 5200 RPM.

 

. EFI introduces new failure prone parts such as sensors, injectors, multiple coils, high pressure pumps, ECMs, etc... plus the EFI conversions are expensive and complicated...

 

Multiple coils are not as failure prone, because if one goes bad, it only affects one cylinder. In a single coils system, a bad coil is fatal.

 

Uuuuggghhhh....so after all my jubilation yesterday, and a GREAT drive where it ran better than it ever has, it refused to start until cooled down yesterday.

I did not spend a ton of time troubleshooting because my son had a baseball game (and the whole gang was going to roll with me in the LTD) so I did not verify I had spark or no spark.

I am suspecting my MSD distributor internal electronics have gone bad and are intemittent...failing when hot in particular...(I thought it was poor contact between the cap center-button and rotor yesterday)...but I might just do the shot-gun approach and attack both fuel and spark:

I am leaning toward pulling both my carb and my distributor today. MSD will RMA / return to me the distributor within 10-14 days and I have a brand-new Edelbrock carb rebuild kit on my workbench...

On the subject of EFI and individual coils on plugs (COP's): I am a big fan. I may eventually go with a setup like DanLee has.

My Mustang has individual COP's, and DanLee is right...when one has an issue (I had water in a plug-hole one time) it only drops the one cylinder vs. leaving you stranded with an unknown no-spark issue. Plus, with modern electronics, it will even tell you which cylinder is mis-firing if you pull the codes. It's a double-edged sword...you would think a carb, coil, distributor setup would be super-simple, but look at me with this LTD, LOL.

 

No...to clarify, now that I am "wise" about distributor options:

I would either:

1) Run the OEM Ford DuraSpark II setup and simply re-curve the OEM style distributor (no aftermarket distributor or ignition)

2) Buy the MSD 8477 distributor (Pro-billet, small diameter housing, requires MSD ignition) and the MSD 6AN digital ignition box #6425 and MSD #8202 Blaster 2 coil.

Since I went all-out, I wanted top-shelf parts, so I "invested" in the MSD stuff, but at this point I am convinced that the reliability and start / idle / WOT qualities of DuraSpark II are almost just as good...and if I don't resolve my intermittent-start issue soon, I may even say DuraSpark II is better