Robert/Texas
Well-known member
My ’34 roadster is badly in need of a tune-up. It runs great under fairly hard acceleration and up to 55 MPH which is as fast as I drive it (4/11 rear end). At low speeds in all gears it feels like the engine is loading up and the spark plugs are wet.
I have owned the car for about 16 years. When I bought it, it was hardly running and at that time I spent a good bit of time getting it running well.
The ’36 engine is stock except for duals/ headers, 12 volts and a Patrick/Mallory distributor and coil. (This is a crab type distributor with no vacuum advance and the vacuum line fitting is blocked off.) I got this distributor from Patricks, 16 years ago as I couldn’t get the helmet type distributor to work well and was impressed by its performance when first installed and up to now. Also, the car had a Stromberg 94 carburetor which I replaced with a 97 and has stock aluminum heads. The car has run about 8,000 miles in these 16 years with no tune-up problems until now.
Now for my questions:
The Champion D-16 spark plugs are wet and just a little fouled. What is recommended to replace these and what should they be set at?
I suspect that the rubbing blocks on the distributor points are worn and that the points should be reset or replaced. I called Patricks and they told me to set the points at 24 thousandths (stock are set at 16) and if they need replacing to use standard Mallory points and to replace the condenser with a #400. Where can good ones be purchased? Does the distributor need to be set up on a Sun machine like the stock ones and if so, who can I get to do this?
All help will be appreciated.
I have owned the car for about 16 years. When I bought it, it was hardly running and at that time I spent a good bit of time getting it running well.
The ’36 engine is stock except for duals/ headers, 12 volts and a Patrick/Mallory distributor and coil. (This is a crab type distributor with no vacuum advance and the vacuum line fitting is blocked off.) I got this distributor from Patricks, 16 years ago as I couldn’t get the helmet type distributor to work well and was impressed by its performance when first installed and up to now. Also, the car had a Stromberg 94 carburetor which I replaced with a 97 and has stock aluminum heads. The car has run about 8,000 miles in these 16 years with no tune-up problems until now.
Now for my questions:
The Champion D-16 spark plugs are wet and just a little fouled. What is recommended to replace these and what should they be set at?
I suspect that the rubbing blocks on the distributor points are worn and that the points should be reset or replaced. I called Patricks and they told me to set the points at 24 thousandths (stock are set at 16) and if they need replacing to use standard Mallory points and to replace the condenser with a #400. Where can good ones be purchased? Does the distributor need to be set up on a Sun machine like the stock ones and if so, who can I get to do this?
All help will be appreciated.