Troubleshooting my FE

[rustyrims]

does your distributor have a vacuum advance ? does it hook to manifold or ported vacuum? If the distributor is hooked to manifold vacuum it will affect engine temperature and how fast it warms up. if you could check and post the current timing .

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by rustyrims

does your distributor have a vacuum advance ? does it hook to manifold or ported vacuum? If the distributor is hooked to manifold vacuum it will affect engine temperature and how fast it warms up. if you could check and post the current timing .

Timing is as good as anything to check first. When you do that also pop the distributor cap off and see if either of the springs are broken or if the little ball in the center of the cap is burned up or broken.

Since the engine had been running great, did Billy say he expected the engine to start to have a decline in performance after a few hundred miles? Or was he just going to tweak it a bit after it was nicely broken in?

When you start the diagnosing, don't take anything apart until you find a clue that the part is misbehaving. It's likely something relatively simple.

[CompFi]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Since the engine had been running great, did Billy say he expected the engine to start to have a decline in performance after a few hundred miles? Or was he just going to tweak it a bit after it was nicely broken in?

Definitely the latter. Some tweaking after broken in as necessary.

I have not yet looked under the distributor. I have a basic understanding of what I should see there. Basic, as in, maintaining an old inboard, marine engine which is about as basic as it gets....

But thanks for the guidance on what I should be looking for under the distributor cap.

[CompFi]

Thank you for the reply.

Originally Posted by rustyrims

does your distributor have a vacuum advance ?

No. At least, I am reasonably convinced that there is no vacuum advance since I could not find any vacuum line from the distributor. Nothing to the carb nor the manifold.

As for timing? I will need to get back to you. I need some adult supervision on that one, which might be a few days before I can entice a knowledgeable buddy to lend a helping hand.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by CompFi

As for timing? I will need to get back to you. I need some adult supervision on that one, which might be a few days before I can entice a knowledgeable buddy to lend a helping hand.

OK, for now just take the distributor cap off, it lifts right off after you turn the two lock down a half turn each, and look to see if the springs are broken.

[CompFi]

Originally Posted by patrickt

OK, for now just take the distributor cap off, it lifts right off after you turn the two lock down a half turn each, and look to see if the springs are broken.

Thanks again for the step by step guidance. Greatly appreciated!!

To my untrained eye, everything looks good. Springs are NOT broken. And cap looks good. If I can decipher how to post pix, I will do so next.

Also, shout out to Brett Lykins for this very helpful vid on recurve of MSD distributor for FE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVKIAdbzT4I

[CompFi]

pix of cap, rotor and springs:

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by CompFi

pix of cap, rotor and springs:

Looks new, but dry as, typical MSD.
Pull the rotor, and apply some moly spray grease to the moving points in the advance mechanism.
Leaving it dry like that causes the mechanism to grind itself into microscopic dust that rusts up inside, and guess where it goes, all over the magnetic pickup.

And your XP series carburetor does not have any vacuum ports on the throttle body, for vacuum brakes, vacuum advance, and vacuum accessories.