Newbie question about speed

bosstime2

bosstime2

Member
I have a 29 roadster pickup with a mitchell. It was completely restored 25 years ago and has held up nicely. I timed it per the Les Andrews way with new points and condenser. Starts and runs beautifully. My issue is this....When I'm in 3rd going about 45 and shift the mitchell into high the rpms drop and I only seem to get up to 48mph and I have the spark lever all the way down.. should I try to advance the timing at the cam or look at the carb....any input would be appreciated. thanks
 
If your timing is set right the spark lever should be about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down not all the way. Welcome to the Ford Barn you can get a lot of questions answered here. No question is supid if you don't know you don't know. The supid part is you don't ask and end up braking something.
 
I thought with the spark lever all the way down I would get the most power. Am I wrong with that way of thinking?
 
You need to play with the spark lever a little and find the sweet
spot for the engine speed.

Bob
 
bosstime2 said:
I thought with the spark lever all the way down I would get the most power. Am I wrong with that way of thinking?
Click to expand...
A better 'rule of thumb' would be that the spark lever should be moved down the higher the rpm and moved up as rpm decreases. (The spark needs to happen earlier at higher rpm)

Engine rpm is the main condition that requires the timing to be changed. The other is engine load. As load increases, as when going up a long hill, you will find that the spark lever will need to be moved up a little to maintain power.

As mentioned above, if you 'play' with the lever you should feel a sweet spot where the the engine will be noticeably smoother and produce more power. This will differ between cars but the basics are still the same. After startup you should find that for general driving under 40 that the lever will be somewhere around 9 o'clock position. As you go faster (no overdrive yet) the spark will need to be advanced, and usually it will end up all the way down. Engage the overdrive and you may find that the lever needs to be moved up a little to adjust for the lowered rpm and slightly heavier load. Again, look for that sweet spot. (Shift into overdrive, apply throttle and move the spark lever to find it.)
 
A higher compression head takes less spark advance. Since you have overdrive, you might also have a high compression head.
 
You should easily get to 50 -55 with a stock engine/transmission in reasonable shape. You should well exceed that the the OD.
 
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