Compression Too High?

[Wolf Tickets]

Many good ideas here. I’d start with the fundamentals. Get the numbers from the shop. Piston compression distance, deck height (or distance down to pistons at TDC). Head cc. Gasket thickness. Let’s calculate it out first and go from there.

Thanks Nate. I'll get a printout from the shop this week. Every time I've talked to them about it, they've looked it up and I hear them reading through the numbers and then saying...'yeah that should be fine on 89 octane'. And I'm like 'I'm not a smart man, but I know what pinging is'. Certainly no mistaking that, the grade of the gas, and that I'm way less than 34 total degrees!!!

Thanks for chiming in. I'll report back with all the numbers from the machine shop.

Ben

 

[Wolf Tickets]

I would say with some certaintly it likely needs more fuel.
Get an AFR meter and install it.
You should be able to run closer to 35 degrees total.

Hey Don,

Can you recommend an AFR Meter? I didn't realize how spendy they were and I don't want to get the cheapest one if that's not going to be accurate. THX!!

 

[Don Frelier]

Autom

Hey Don,

Can you recommend an AFR Meter? I didn't realize how spendy they were and I don't want to get the cheapest one if that's not going to be accurate. THX!!

Autometer makes good stuff.
I opted for one that reads in decimal as I want to see tenths

 

[Curiousyellow71]

If you have a minor coolant leak Conklin makes a product called Dike you can add to the coolant...it can stop many leaks.
I haven't seen what spark plugs your running? It's very common for spark plug heat range recommendation to be way to hot. The electrodes will get so hot it will cause it to ping. It's easy enough to try colder plugs and try it..see if it helps.

 

[Outsider]

Ben, not sure if your car is presently drivable, but if so and you are willing to drive down to my place in Tacoma, we could do a comparison with my 440 powered Plymouth with cast iron exhaust. Perhaps put the timing light on yours, maybe swap in my distributor for a test, and some simple checks to see if there is anything odd about yours. It would be useful to know exactly what your cam installed intake CL and piston model or at least piston to deck clearance. PM me if you are interested. John

 

[Wolf Tickets]

Ben, not sure if your car is presently drivable, but if so and you are willing to drive down to my place in Tacoma, we could do a comparison with my 440 powered Plymouth with cast iron exhaust. Perhaps put the timing light on yours, maybe swap in my distributor for a test, and some simple checks to see if there is anything odd about yours. It would be useful to know exactly what your cam installed intake CL and piston model or at least piston to deck clearance. PM me if you are interested. John

Outsider, THANK YOU so much for the kind offer. I've ordered the AF meter and Jet kit and

Autom

Autometer makes good stuff.
I opted for one that reads in decimal as I want to see tenths

Autometer and a jet kit it is. I figure I can wait on a FI upgrade for a while so this is worth the investment for now. I'll report the results!!

 

[Wolf Tickets]

Ben, not sure if your car is presently drivable, but if so and you are willing to drive down to my place in Tacoma, we could do a comparison with my 440 powered Plymouth with cast iron exhaust. Perhaps put the timing light on yours, maybe swap in my distributor for a test, and some simple checks to see if there is anything odd about yours. It would be useful to know exactly what your cam installed intake CL and piston model or at least piston to deck clearance. PM me if you are interested. John

Outsider: THANKS A MILLION for the offer!!! I'm ordering the AF meter and jet kit so if that doesn't fix it I'd Love to run down to hang out and compare our setups. Happy to do it anyway as it's always awesome to see what little things can be different between similar setups. I'll check back in when I get the mixture dialed in!!

 

[Wolf Tickets]

If you have a minor coolant leak Conklin makes a product called Dike you can add to the coolant...it can stop many leaks.
I haven't seen what spark plugs your running? It's very common for spark plug heat range recommendation to be way to hot. The electrodes will get so hot it will cause it to ping. It's easy enough to try colder plugs and try it..see if it helps.

Thanks CuriousYellow71. NGK XR5 plugs. I'm going to see about the AF mixture and go from there. Thanks for the tip on the Dike product. It's just tiny leak and we will be pulling the heads next months so I'm probably good.

 

[Wolf Tickets]

Autom

Autometer makes good stuff.
I opted for one that reads in decimal as I want to see tenths

Hey Don, i have the gauge connected and I'm seeing

Thx Don. I'll do that and report back.

Hey Don,

Got the auto meter wide band installed. I need to have a co pilot record exact numbers but here's what I'm seeing at a glance:

Idle 12.5-13.2
Cruise: 12 something to 13.8
WOT 12 something and just a tiny ping for a split second when flooring it from a cruise.


I have changed the timing to 15 initial, 12 mechanical and i am really happy with the throttle response from a stop, and really it feels great all around.... But I'm leaving power (and efficiency) on the table if I'm not running more total advance, right?

I was thinking perhaps it's not reading lean at WOT because I've got the timing limited to 27 total. If i were to raise, would it show lean (right at the same time it's pinging like crazy....)?


Thanks again for all the help!


Ben