I am in the process of rebuilding my Slant Six for more performance. I took my distributor apart for cleaning and to get an idea of what might have to be done if it needs to be re-curved. There was a green spring ( I think this one is left alone) and a red/orange/rust colored spring that is a candidate for changing. How will I know the distibutor needs to be re-curved? What symptoms will I get that indicate distributor re-curving is the answer?

Reasons to recurve:

1. I might want more initial timing because it makes the motor idle better and gets better pick up off the line.

2. I have a distributor which was not origionally from this car and I would like to change it to match the cars factory spec

3. I have modified the gearing or compression or something in such a way, that the origional curve no longer produces good results.

Best performance is found walking the line between maximum advance without ping.

Ping is cause by several factors, and reducing the amount of advance during different parts of a curve is one way to deal with it.(higher octane fuel is another) Adjusting springs will change how quickly the advance happens. Another element of a recurve is replacing the governor or modifying the slots which determine how much total advance is available.

You want to make the intial timing plus the total mechanical equal to 30* of advance at the crank. The governor will often be stamped with a number which is 1/2 the amount of advance.

I've seen
9r governors for cars with 12* BTDC initial timing,
11r, for 8* BTDC initial
15 governors for 0* initial timing

The "r" doesn't really mean anthing. The 15 governors have been what I see most commonly in the electronic distributors in slant six trucks and 318 distributors. The 9 governors are very nice to work with and frequently found in aspen/volares.

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1980 Aspen 225 super six

I have a 1980 D-150. I guess it is faily heavy. The instructions for the Crane Recurve kit mention an orange spring for heavier vehicles. I assume that is what is in there?

is there somewhere i can read to learn the finer points of recurving?

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God took you away, then brought you back to me.

Do a search on this site. MANY posts have been made about dist recurving. There was a good one in the last 6 mo - try searching "advance" and "curve".

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I'm working on it, but if you could PLEASE document what you find,(pictures would be fantastic)

I've been putting something together for a few days now. You'll find it mentioned in another post I made today.

This is the information -THEY- don't want you to have. Tell no one! This topic will self destruct in 5 seconds.

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1980 Aspen 225 super six