Yea I really need to get a tach so I can visually see what RPM its at. The pinging is what driving me nuts, even at the factory 10* base it tries pinging under hard loads or heavy acceleration. If I retard it any further its gutless and idles rough. Right now I have no vacuum to the advance and set it a little higher than stock base timing, its running great and no pinging so far... Still trying to figure out exactly whats going on...

While its mostly stock, it does have HEI, no cat, and a new muffler, no EGR, no vacuum amplifier, or any other emission crap beside the vapor can, wich is still hooked up like it should be. Already switched to a colder than stock plug as well... Stock air cleaner, hot air door doesnt work, and have the fresh air hose connected to the fender...

There are a couple of things that would be good to know.

Do you drive the car on long hauls to really warm it up and clean it out? Like over an hour at freeway speeds? I am wondering if it is carboned up.....causing some pre-detonation........
or the possibility of some real weak springs in the distributor allowing the mechanical advance to come on too soon.......like the advance weights maybe advancing too quickly.

When I first got my car the previous owner did little maintenance. It pinged like a bad dog as you described. After cleaning up the old grease and re-springing the distributor it stopped. A couple of bottles of Gumout or Seafoam can help clean up the valves and cylinder head as well. I run full time water injection just to keep that valves clean. The water mist melts the carbon and keeps things sanitary for a super steady idle in those 2 1/2 hour traffic jams.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

It occasionally sees long hauls like that, recently more often than before making doctors visits because I have a little girl on the way. The engine is really fresh and doesnt burn any fluids. It is a little over a year old and Im not 100% on how many miles we have put on it.

Couple things I really dont know is
1: I bought the engine pre-built, had all the proper machine work done, including new pistons, new cam and lifters, and new timing set. So I do not know if its an OE grind on the cam or what grind it may be, as well as I dont know compression ratio due to re-using my cylinder head on the rebuilt engine.

2: I really think its mostly something to do with the dizzy, I did replace it a few months ago with a cardone reman trying to eliminate a stalling issue so I dont know exactly what springs, govenor, or advance pod is on it. I will have to pull it and look close.

I am really interested in that water injection set-up you have Ted, just never got around to asking you about it some more... I do run 91 octane, and every couple tanks I will add a little Sta-bil to it.

On a reman it is hard to know if they used good springs or even the correct ones.

Send me your email and I can share more about the water injection......or you can do a search on this site as I have described the setup several times. I ran many different systems during my Power Mech classes at Western Washington State College. I finally designed one that is simple to maintain and works like a charm to keep the engine clean. It is not pressurized as a power adder.....it just keeps the engine from pinging when running lots of timing (55 to 60 degrees) and it's better than running the EGR to knock back timing.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

Yea I strongly feel that something is wrong in the distributor... While it had a random misfire that went away when I swapped the old one for the reman, but now it seems to pull too much and is causing pinging under hard loads, or high RPMs if I set it to the factory timing settings... Either I have to retard the timing till the idle is poor but no pinging under load, or set the base timing higher and run no vacuum advance...

As you know you just can't buy any Reman, there are probably 15 to 20 different SL6 distributor setups for the various auto's, truck's, van's are different from cars and the car distributors changed many times from the early 60's.....

The distributor needs to match the vehicle. The guys on here have posted many of the correct distributor ID numbers through the years.

Once you get a Reman you need to pull it apart to verify that the correct parts were used. Just like on carbs, engines, etc.....

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

Just a thought, have you verified that the vacuum advance line to the carb is plugged in the right place on the carb.

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Seen that...pretty funny on a Holley 1945 if the vacc. advance is hooked to the EGR intake...
You actually have to pull it apart so you know where to "start" with it...they all use the same generic 10x (20 degrees) of unadjustable vacuum advance can...but you need to check the governor so you know what you have...(i.e.if it's a 15L you can set the reman to TDC or so and that's all you get...if you're lucky and it's a 9R, then you can set for 10-12 BTDC but have to watch it with the vacc. can's limited actuation).

-D.Idiot

Yea I learned the hard way that you don't buy a reman and just slap it in. Its a little too late for that now. Like I said, Ill have to pull it when I get time to see what govenor/vac advance combo is in it.

I know for a fact the vacuum line is attached to the right spot. Its where it was originally only diff is I bypassed the valve on the side of the air cleaner. Small line, mid way up on the pass side of the Carter BBD. I have also verified it has now vacuum at idle and gradually increases with engine speed.

Back again with more questions... Ive just about got this thing down, idles good, and has been doing very well even with the vac advance hooked up. Havnt had much pinging that I can hear while driving, but it has run-on a couple times after I shut her down. Also has a slight little flat spot under acceleration too...

So Im back to suspecting the carb. Carter BBD, I have verified it is a super six carb and not a v-8 carb. (check throttle plates, choke linkage, choke horn thickness, venturi diameter, and linkages all match up) I feel like the issue may just be it leaning out.

My question(s) are, beside setting the pump higher to get a longer duration squirt, what can be done to improve the part throttle/ full throttle performance without sacrificing idle quality? Are there a set of jets that can be made to fit, or can I adjust the step-up piston differently? I know different BBDs came with different jets/metering rods, just need a push in the right direction to look for an alternative. Been contimplating water/alcohol injection as well after doing a bunch of research on it... Any ideas on that?

Thank you again to everyone who has been patient with me getting through this! I really do appreciate it ALOT!

So before I do something I regret I wanted to ask and hope someone out there can shed some light on the subject. I want to richen up the fuel mixture a bit, now I read a couple times about adjusting the step-up piston to change the mixture a bit across the power range of the engine. Now I only have only one carb to work with and its on the car now and dont want to screw it up.

Ive read that some folks have done it successfully, and Ive also read that you should not attempt to adjust it under any circumstance...? As Ive mentioned Im having part throttle and wide open throttle issues, mainly stalling, and lately pinging under high load/ high rpm driving. So I want to try and richen it up and see if I can run a little more base timing and eliminate the stalling and pinging...

When I try to adjust it, should I limit it to like an 1/8th turn out or more or less? If no one has any suggestions Ill just wing it and learn by trial and error... The rest of my knowledge of the slant has been learned from doing it that way anyway, but hoping someone with some Carter knowledge would chime in on the subject... I really dont want to open another post for these questions like most others on here do...

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"if it aint broke, fix it till it is"
78 Plymouth Volare Super Six wagon
89 Volkswagen Golf GTI 16v
92 Chevrolet K1500 5.7
98 Ford Escort ZX2 zetech