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better engine performance
I just came back from Sturgis SD and did a couple of things to squeeze a little more mileage and power out of my 427. If you have a diesel then you can quit reading this right now, it won't help you a bit, if gas then read on. Having delved into racing a little bit in my life I find it is like on the Ford commercials, racing does trickle down to regular life. I tried a "race car" 1" phenolic spacer under my Holley carburator and it made a world of difference in power. Instead of the carb sitting on a hot manifold and the gas boiling inside it - she was luke warm and much happier at doing her job of metering fuel. If you live above --- say --- nebraska then I would be carefull about doing this because your carb will ice up on the inside butterfly plates without enough intake crossover heat. Down here in Mo it doesn't get that cold and I don't plan on driving it when it's below freezing so I don't feel it's a problem. Also after your engine has warmed up you are getting warm air from the radiator to keep things happy. I did put a thermocouple in my air cleaner when driving down the highway (+or- 1/2 a degree accuracy) in 100 degree heat and to my suprise my air temp was about 145, go figure. If my engine temp was reading 195 and the ambiant temp was almost 100 then a 145 intake air temp was really really good. I would say there is enough air moving under the hood/doghouse that you don't get a saturation of heat in you air cleaner/carb. You might consider putting a spacer under your carb and see what happens, it only costs $20.
The other thing I did was run Lucas Fuel Conditioner in my gasoline on the way up and back. It says a gallon will treat 400 gallons and it costs @ $25 a gallon so I gave it a try. IT REALLY WORKS! Now I am not one that believes in all these vodoo mystery additives that will cure your motor woes, making your vehicle stop leaking, wheezing and coughing and run like a scalded dog, but this stuff seems to work in my bus. I would say that between the spacer and the treatment my bus is running about 25% better, that's 25% more power than before! That's 25% faster up a hill, a little better gas mileage too (unsubstantiated, I seem to have gone from 5.5 to 6 MPG and a higher average speed). I believe it is supposed to make things burn better/more efficent and that is what I heard from friends and just felt. I did pull my plugs out and you could see the gunk that turned into a toothpase looking consistancy, sticking to them in droplet forms after it was washed off the intake valves and into the cylinders. I hope that makes sense, the conditioner washed the gunk off the intake valves, making them much more efficient, washing it into the cylinders and out the exhaust after burning what it could. The left over unburned stuff stuck to the plugs and may possibly be burned off at a later date but I wouldn't hold my breath. If you foul a plug doing this then you know you are doing something to bring up the efficiency of your engine by cleaning it. If you foul plugs on a regular basis then you may be changing them more often. A couple of mine were on the verge of getting gunked shut but didn't. If you have ever tore an engine down that has a lot of miles on it then you know what I am talking about, the valves no longer look like tulips but more like plugs shoved into a hole. All I can say to this one is buy a gallon next time you are going on a long trip and give it a try, you might like the results also. sportyrick
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