I finally got around to adjusting the valves, timing, and the fuel mixture on my newly rebuilt 1954 235 (~1000 mi since rebuild). I really was reluctant to mess with anything as it ran so well. I drove the truck for about an hour and came home and quickly set the valves. Most valve gaps were okay with only a few having too wide of a gap. I adjusted the valves 0.008 intake and 0.020 exhaust.
Below is an image of the plugs.
[img]http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/3176/medium/IMG_7966.JPG[/img]Cylinder one is on right and six on left. I don't have much experience with old engines, does the coloration look okay? All were gapped to 0.035.
I sourced a vintage vacuum gauge to set the timing and fuel mixture. Before disturbing the timing, I checked the marks with a timing light and it had been set to 5BTDC. With the vacuum guage installed, I got a maximum reading of 20.5 inches of Hg after correcting for elevation. When checking with the timing light, the flywheel markings are much more advanced (most likely somewhere 10BTDC based on the estimated distance from UIC and the bb at 5BTDC). Is it okay to run a 235 with timing advanced this much? Is the final test for timing based on trial and error with pinging being the indicator of too much advance?
[img]http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data/3176/medium/IMG_7963.JPG[/img]My "new" $11 USA made vacuum gauge. Never set timing or fuel mixture with a vacuum guage before...kind of neat.
Any critiques,recommendations or advice are welcome. I also want to thank the collective knowledge base on stovebolt for providing so much useful information.
Paul
