Quick update.
I've needed to adjust the fuel/air idle mixture and idle RPM's since finishing replacing my blown out exhaust manifold gaskets.
Ends up, I was running a bit lean at idle, and my idle RPM's were too high (700rpm's). Looking at my plugs, they all looked equal, but slightly lean being tan colored, rather than chocolaty brown.
I hooked up my vacuum gauge, fattened things up at idle, and lowered the idle rpm's and now it's running really well. Best it's every run since I've owned it, actually. The last four years of work finally paid off today!
I took it for a drive and, wouldn't you know it, my engine temp stayed steady at 180-182 degrees the whole time, even driving up the hill that previously had me temporarily warm up to 205. I'm wondering if my
fuel adjustment at the carb helped it run cooler? Given that the adjustment is at idle, I'm not sure that that would have made a huge difference in running a bit cooler.
Todays temps were 64F. When I drove it last week at the same time, it was 69F. I don't think that 5 degrees of ambient temps would make much difference in regards to it having run warmer last week.
Anyway, that's where I'm at.
