hei swap is finally into the tuning stages. Msd stuff removed, need to list for sale. It idles way better with vacuum advance. Wideband is wired, and im waiting on the correct gauge to show up as the spartan2 doesnt seem to like playing with an innovate gauge.
i also just ordered the reproduction 340 sport mirrors. $250, but hopefully it will finally be set and forget door mirrors unlike the junk ive been dealing with for damn near 30 years.
Interested to see what your first drive reveals about the swap!
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Welcome to the Dark Side.
after far more effort than it should have taked, i finally have properly set timing, functional vacuum advance, and more readily available parts supplies for the duster. Holley berkeleyed me when they made both distributor ports timed in this carb. I had to do a bot of crappy adapting to get full manifold vacuum to the distributor at idle that shouldn't have been necessary at all.
it was rich. By a lot. I lowered the floats to just barely visible in the sight glasses when you rock the car and that cleaned up cold idle immensely. Snappier throttle response as well.
fresh plugs in today, and i dropped the oil drain plug to get the fuel contaminated oil out. It was far blacker than a gas engine should be. Almost diesel oil black. Im letting it drip overnight, then fresh synthetic 15-40 and wix filter. A little cleaning, and it should be good enough for an extended test drive monday to grab the Dakota r/t.
fist bump on the WIX filter....
Got it out for a test drive today.
174 miles worth.
Fuel economy is greatly improved, drivability is amazing now, idle is much more stable. Its phenomenal.
Why the miles? Brother dustin and i went to pick up a quck restore and flip project.
99 dakota rt. Its needy and scruffy, but has amazing bones. My goal is to turn this into double my investment and a 1911.
Duster looks great! I like the R/Ts a lot. What 1911 are you liking?
wawazat said:Duster looks great! I like the R/Ts a lot. What 1911 are you liking?
In full agreement. Inquiring minds need to know.
Colt m1911 government in stainless. 45acp . Its a dream firearm.
Very nice!
15.3 mpg!!!!
Almost doubled.
Can you explain how lowering floats changed how rich the car runs? Unless the bowls were somehow dumping into the intake, I don't understand.
I thought the air drew in however much fuel it could through the orifice in the jet. I thought the bowls were just to have a reserve of fuel in order to conteract acceleration / cornering / braking forces. The float serves as the d3vice to make sure there is enough fuel in the bowl as a reserve, but shuts the float valve when the level gets too high.
Was the level high enough to let fuel out of the bowls in an uncontrolled manner?
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
I just read it as he put on a proper GM part and his mpg doubled. I think the answer is GM fairy dust.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
Changing the height of the float (and therefore the fuel level) changes the head pressure of the fuel in the bowl, relative to the air pressure. Kinda like the discharge at the bottom of a dam is greater with more water in the reservoir and visa-versa. So lower is leaner, and it will delay the timing of when the main circuit through the boosters is activated.
It is also possible that the float level was high enough to cause the boosters to dribble a bit too.
In reply to TheRyGuy :
Exactly. They were halfway up the sight glass before, so id expect dribbling from the boosters as well.
Stampie and rob: combination of adding vacuum advance, proper base and full timing, and carb changes. Thats what doubled the economy.
Now i need to make an idle step up solenoid for ac. It stalls when the compressor engages.
So, got an oil leak and a mysteriously variable idle. Need to poke at it when i get the mg out.
I did put another 100ish miles on it this weekend, and finally installed the hella h4 conversion housings my wife and daughter got me for Christmas with some hella high wattage h4s.
Holy crap. I don't know why i didn't justify the expense a decade ago. Absolutely amazing lights that i will add to anything with 7 round headlights from here on out.
20 years ago when i restored this car, i could only get one door jamb switch. So i left myself this.
Today, i cleaned up a used one sourced for the duster stock car and installed it. Only took 20 years.....
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
In reply to Russian Warship, Go Berkeley Yourself :
Lol. Its sad how long ove let this irritate me. 20 years of halfassery fixed in minutes.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
TBF, it was the passenger side.
seatbelt hits my ear.
Design and make a plate to use a gm seatbelt guide that slip fits under headrest legs.
WINNING
Whoa whoa whoa ......gettin' way fancy there boss !!!!
Nice simple, yet effective seatbelt mod! I might take your example as inspiration! I feel kind of dumb that I've been suffering for about a year, having a seatbelt sawing away at my neck, saying, "oh shucks, no way of fixing that...I guess that's just the way it is.." 
In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :
That seatbelt has been hitting my ear for over a decade. I just now had the inspiration for this fix.
Still needs a little fine tuning, but during the 120 mile cruise yesterday itvwas perfect.
Next steps are tuning the carb to idle with the ac on....
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