On FE and FT engines the intake manifold meets the head underneath the valve cover so you were not spraying carb cleaner on the intake manifold gasket.
Look at the photos in this article and you can easily see the valve cover flange that is part of the intake manifold.
https://www.diyford.com/ford-fe-engi...ltimate-guide/

 

Im familiar with the FE and that the intake is "part" of the head, i was referring to the block/intake gaskets front and rear and the carb base and the 1" ish egr thing between the carb and intake. I didn't figure that the gasket between head and intake was leaking since there isnt any oil being burned as if it were being sucked in from under the valve cover... Late valve timing is the other part of what is indicated by vacuum gauge, is it possible that the timing chain could have stretched enough to lag the cam that far behind the crank? And BTW, thank you all for your help with this, ive got a couple other things that I will be asking for some advice with in the near future too.

 

As a kid who has vivid memories of riding on his share of school buses, I remembered the driver putting on his hazards any time he encountered a steep hill with a full load of students trying to climb it. And yes, the bus was a newer one equipped with a 370 V8 LPG powered, with an Alison behind it. I remembered this, because I remembered being extremely amused by the fact that THAT was as fast as it could go, under those operating conditions.

 

I just find this a little hard to believe. Back in the 70's we had probably 15 B model 60 pass Ward bodys
with 330's and 4 speed. They climbed hills they stayed with the 350 GMCs on class trips. I just think
by now its timing chain time....... It doesn't take too much chain stretch to go gutless...

 

And this AGAIN - you need to check this vacuum advance thing before you go any further. Using manifold vacuum for the vacuum advance will retard the timing as you get into the gas-pedal. That's not what you want.

 

Im using the little vacuum port on the front of the carb base, other than the big port on front that goes to passenger valve cover pcv and big one on back of carb (plugged off as vacuum for brake system is on manifold between carb and distributor.), Theres no other vacuum source on carburetor, and i know to not use manifold vacuum for dist advance. Btw, i took off the old holley 4barrel and put the old carter 4barrel (mechanical secondaries and man choke)off the 429cj on the bus because the little tube between front n rear fuel bowls is leaking fuel, and i havent been able to make time to go through it and put a kit in it, tried to put new orings on ends of tube n might have worked but the bowl gaskets sprung leaks after the orings went in, so i just swapped it for the known to be good carter on my dd rig. There's a few things that dont have nowhere to plug onto as the carter is void of all the emmissions crap the holley had coming off of it...nothing that i see would be a contributor to my power loss just tube to charcoal can, carb secondaries, etc.

 

You should haven't vacuum on the vacuum advance at idle. If you do, and it's a "ford" type vacuum advance port on the Carter, the throttle plates are open too far. This could be because the timing is too far retarded, and you had to open the plates (raise the idle) to compensate.

 

Which way do i turn the dist. to advance, clockwise?

 

Remove the distributor cap. Bump the engine over with the starter as you watch the direction in which the distributor rotor turns. To advance ignition timing, you move the distributor body in the OPPOSITE direction that the distributor rotor turns when the engine is running. This goes for any engine that uses a distributor.

 

The biggest reason it won't pull a hill very fast is that pos at540 Allison, the manual trans buses with 361's ran good, I rode on my share of them in the 60's and early 70's.

 

I agree with that statement 100%.

 

The very VERY short answer to that is: yes



All ford gas engines at least from the 60's and up, the distributor spins counterclockwise. (never worked on a flathead - lol)