The reason for the wide gap settings in the early 80's was because of the extremely lean mixtures they were running back then. It was hoped there would be at least a little combustible mixture in the gap area if it was wide enough. It worked; I could set gaps in the 35-45 thousandths range and get a miss, and go up to 60 to 80, and run smooth! With normal mixtures, 45 thousandths is about right.
Jerry
