Friday, January 27, 2012

Small Project During the Week - Carb Tuning

I spent a little time on the Mustang each night after work but much less than in previous weeks.  After little success with the idle mixture screws on Monday, I decided to tackle some small projects and return to carburator adjustments later. 

On Tuesday, I fixed the wiring for the electric fan.  I had it wired constant to the adjustable temperature controller for engine break-in.  Today, I wired in a relay and have it running off an ignition wire which is connected to my new fuse block. 

On Wednesday, I swapped out my spark plug wires for the MSD StreetFire ones I used previously.  I did not thik they would work as I needed 45 degree boots.  However, while searching for new ones, I found these can be bent at the boot and effectively become 45 degree boots.  I fixed the one which was melted on the header and the reinstalled them.

On Thursday, I cleaned up the inside of the Mustang a little and wiped off the outside.  I installed the windlace on the inside of the car which was the final interior piece I needed to install.
Last night, I worked on setting the idle mixture but did not have much luck.  The vacuum is at 14 with the idle at 900 RPM.  From what I read, this is about normal for my cam but probably just a little low (15 would be good).  It is likely a little low due to the timing and fuel mixture not being correct.  After setting it at 1.5 turns out and driving around the block a little, I pulled a plug and found the following... looks a little rich.


Since the engine was still warm, I decided to go ahead and change the oil.  I swapped out the Comp Cams 10w30 break-in oil with Brad Penn 10w30 oil.  This oil has all the additives needed for running flat tappett cams which is missing from most off the shelf types of oil.  I purchased it from Summit and installed a new Wix 51515 filter to go along with it.  I'll cut up the old oil filter in the future to see what is in the filter from the break-in process.

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