Aha, you are not running the stock advance unit.

I bet if he advances his initial timing a little bit, his vacuum numbers will go up. It all relates to the original thread

 

More advance will bring the vacuum up. But, we need to know if there is a problem with the engine, and his 10 degrees of advance is enough to give good vacuum on a solid engine - especially at 800 rpm. IOW, 17" will put him in "late ignition timing" on most vacuum gauges but at 10 degrees the timing isn't late.

 

I've got my initial at 12* BTDC, it runs better at 14* BTDC but anything over that it'll pop out the exhaust, and at 14* BTDC I will get a ping on hot re start when it fires, then after that it's fine. Oddly enough my adjustable vacuum advance says MOTORCRAFT on the back, I've got two light advance springs (helped a lot how it runs), my compression readings were really good,

1.140 PSI (gauge wasn't screwed down tight so say 145-150)
2.145 PSI
3.150 PSI
4.150 PSI
5.150 PSI
6.150 PSI
7.150 PSI
8.155 PSI

the only thing that's not stock is the Weiand stealth manifold, long tube headers and a double roller timing chain. I would have probably gotten a higher vacuum reading if my test hose that hooked to the manifold T was tighter, I will have to check it again. As far as I know the camshaft is stock, from what I've read a stock 351W should have around 18-20" of vacuum. I'll have to check the vacuum in park and drive to see how much of a difference it is.

When your sitting at a stop light in drive you can't even feel this thing run it runs so smooth, if I had a quiet exhaust on it the only thing that would be able to tell me it was running were the gauges lol.

Oh I almost forgot, at hot idle in drive it's 40 PSI oil pressure, when I put it in park it goes to 50 PSI immediately, I'm pretty happy about that, Driving around town it's 50-60 PSI.

 

The gauge no matter the reading was showing just above "late on timing", if it was at 10* BTDC it would show 17", 12-14* BTDC it would show just slightly higher.

 

So I noticed a coolant leak today, and found out it's the thermostat housing. I almost crapped my self when I started feeling around the intake manifold, luckily it was dry. Just a $1.50 gasket. But my thermostat housing is warped about 0.04" if I remember correctly at the bottom. I even glued it on there with the gasket. Can I sand down the surface that's raised slightly around the thermostat so I can make the surface flatter?

 

Yes you can. But before that, put a little strain on the housing with your hands and make sure it doesn't have a hairline crack about midway. It's a very common problem caused by the thermostat slipping out of the intake, and then the housing is tightened down on top of it, cracking it.

 

I sanded one down and it worked, but I'm not sure how much it can be sanded down before you get the pressure to be on the thermostat instead of the housing. On mine the recess wasn't very deep and sanding it made it even less so. And my fear was that I would then break the housing's ears off as I tightened the bolts down.

 

If you get the self adhesive gasket it will hold the thermostat in place (if the boss is dry and clean.)

 

I was using a self-adhesived gasket, but my fear was that the pivot point would be the thermostat. And that would allow the ears to break.

 

From what I remembered there was enough to let the thermostat sit inside the recess and a bit more, I figure taking a little bit off to make it slightly flatter and then glue the thing good should seal it up. When I first installed it with no glue it leaked water on the test when I put the new intake on for the first time. I had bead blasted the thermostat housing before I painted it so I would have seen cracks if there were any.

 

So today I swapped the 0.095" and 0.098" jets around and put a 5" step up spring, that runs like crap. Tomorrow I get to change them back! I checked #1 and 5 plugs and they were pretty dark. Oh well at least it's easy to change back. Just takes me 20 minutes. This thing needs to be taken for a good long hard drive. I wasn't able to get a vacuum and fuel pressure reading since my dad keeps his vacuum/fuel pressure gauge locked up. Oh yeah I almost have enough money for an exhaust system now.

 

I'm hearing "I told you so" from somewhere. You guys hearing it or is it just in my head?

 

I'm hearing it too, so I swapped them back, runs the same as before. But I noticed something weird, the passenger side primary booster says 7101 and the primary drivers side booster says 7102. Is that normal?

I always hate loosing those stupid little cotter clips, this time for the high idle linkage I wound up using a E clip. I need to buy a bag of those little cotter clips, they always drop on the intake somewhere and I see them drop and never can find them again.

 

Yes, one of the boosters is for the left side and the other for the right, so different numbers.

 

Ok that's good then lol, do you know where I could buy a bag of those little retainer clips for the carb linkages? I figure Blowes or Home Depot would have them.