VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Fuel Economy

OKEY-DOKEY....Thanks.

Gotta31

Leave a note what the results are with .45"

Will do.

Gotta31

.045", not .45". :eek: :eek: :eek:

Ok I have a question. I see the window with the pointer. I found a line and then a #12 below it. Is there a line or mark for TDC 0*. Or is the line I see TDC? If so I can set my timming gun at 18* and turn the distributor until the light hits the 0* mark.

Thanks

There are two marks on the flywheel. One mark is U/C and the other mark is "12". "UC" means "Upper Center" and that would be top dead center. The 12 degree mark is 4 flywheel teeth to the right of the U/C mark as I remember.

Thanks JYD!!!!
I found all of the marks. This Forumn is the best.

Thanks

Plug gap update:

When I removed the plugs to regap them to .045 I noticed that they were already turning color from black(at .024) to a light grey(at .040). I'll take them out in about a week to see what color they will be at .045. But they're going in the right direction and so is the residue from the tail pipe.Its not as sooty as it was.
I'll report back in about a week.

Gotta31

Chevman: You bet!

GOTTA31: That's why the gap on the spark plugs has to be opened up to get a better and hotter spark. Looks like you are going in the right direction. Cool!

JYD! I have adjusted my 31 to .040 on the C-87 plugs and set the timing to 18 degrees BTDC and immediately have noticed the difference in acceleration and engine responce. It also has almost eliminated the popping out the tailpipe, although I still have some minor sputter and that may be due to the fact I have stainless steel exhaust valves installed with hardened valve seats. I will be going on the VCCA Southern Spring Tour next week in Beaumont, Texas and will be putting lots of miles on her, so I will try to post what kind of gas mileage I get.

Hoppy: Cool and that's good news! You might want to open your spark plug gap a little more to .045" and see if the minor popping goes away. It did on my car immediately when I bumped the gap to .045" from .040". Just that little amount made a big difference.

On the stainless steel valves and hardened seats, you have already done that so that's cool, but it wasn't necessary. You have a very low compression engine and your car ran on unleaded (white gasoline) when it was new, so the present unleaded gasoline won't hurt your engine since, as I said, it is a low compression engine.

I would like to thank JYD, Bill Barker,Gotta31 for their responces. You guys are great.
I did my spark plugs and timing this morning, and holly smokes the car runs great. Like night & day. Wonder why GM did not find this out?

Thanks

Cool! Another satisfied customer!

Would this same theory work on a 216 engine ? Thanks

It might. You will have to experiment since the specifications for that engine are different than the 1929-32 194 cubic inch engine. However, one thing to consider is that for many, many years the listed spark plug gap for the 1929-32 engines has been incorrect.

With the 216 engine I set everything according to factory specs. including setting the timing on the mark advised.Then I advance the octane selector another 8 degrees as would have been done when they were new and premium gas was used.This can be done because todays regular is higher octane then the premimum 50 or 60 years ago.

Thanks JYD and chevgene. I reset the octane setting on my 50 and seems to respond better.I never quite understood its function as the manual just says set it to zero. Always learning !

Thanks JYD and chevgene. I reset the octane setting on my 50 and seems to respond better.I never quite understood its function as the manual just says set it to zero. Always learning !

The manual says to set it at 0 with the timing light - then take it out on the road and advance it as much as possible with the octane selector.Advance it to the point that there is only a slight ping at full throttle and at low speed.With todays gas it will not ping unless something is wrong with the distributor advance mechanism.This allowed the owner to taylor his timing to the gas he was using.Years ago often the octane would vary greatly from one brand to another, etc.
Advanceing the octane would allow the best performance and economy for the fuel being used......today its all done automatically.

Just returned back from the Southern Spring Tour last night. Had a GREAT time, drove our 31 about 400 miles and averaged 15 miles per gallon.

Well,I can close another chapter in my problems book. The engine likes the .045 plug gap and 18 degree BTDC setting.
Getting good response and much better gas mileage.

Any of you out there who have also made these changes, please post your MPG. I still have not gotten my speedo back and I'm curious to know what others are getting.

Gotta31

I had my woodie out for a 3 1/2 hour spring warm-up this past weekend and got 16 mpg. I kept the speed mostly just under 40, but did "flog" it to 45 on occassion, just to see if it could do it. It coped with the hills of central Massachusetts pretty well, I was relieved to find; plenty of power to maintain speed up most of the hills without having to down shift to second. I'm looking to find a way to weigh it as I'm very curious to see how much the ash and oak body adds to the car. Any ideas? The woodie tracks pretty straight if the road is smooth (a rarity in frost heave-pot-holed New England) but is a bit skittish when the road is bumpy.

You should be able to find a place to weigh your car in the phone book. Moving and Storage companies usually have scales to weigh their trucks.

In Oregon, the Transportation Department leaves the scales on full time, so even if the weigh station is closed, the scales are activated so you can weigh your vehicle.