gas mileage improved

[stevenelle]

Some time ago on this forum I was lamenting 10 mpg after many tanks of gas and keeping accurate records. About that same time, I hooked up a vacuum gauge and noted that vacuum at idle was somewhat below what it should be. I advanced ignition timing considerably until desired vacuum was achieved. Now after 3 additional tanks of gas, the B1B is getting about 13 mpg. This is all city driving, and short trips, so I feel quite a bit better. Now, I can get 200 miles between re-filling.

The engine seemed to run just fine when the timing was incorrect, so I had no idea it needed work.

[grey beard]

Stevenelle,

Surely would be interesting to see what a timing light would tell us hooked to your engine, now that you've improved it. It is my gut feeling that you could continue advancing it even more from where it now is - up to the point where either it begins to ping on hard acceleration or it cranks hard when it's hot. Failing those two indications, you still may see additional mpg improvement with added advance.

Let us know what happens. Good Luck.

[MBF]

That's what the manual says-advance until it pings on a hard pull in high gear from 10mph. Pretty foolproof-especially for something that has a lot of miles on the timing chain. I'm getting 13 mpg on my 1 ton running locally to show-was hoping for better but after last night's chat session sounds like I'm in the ballpark! Mike