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My '77 L-48 heats up as I drive 20 miles to work. While working on changing the advance weights on the distributor I noticed an area where I think there should be a seal between the condenser and the radiator.
Under air intake
While removing the center plate I broke one of the posts, do I need a replacement distributor now?
that is welded pivot stud on the main shaft of the distributer,
it would require, removal and full disassemble,
and then not sure where you could buy a pivot stud and get welded.
for a 77 Dist. I would just replace the dist. it is nothing special, standard HEI dist.
good luck...
Timing changes can effect running temp. Still that's assuming you have been messing with your advance before the stud broke. If not it could be a thousand things and I'd start with the basics, clean the rad or ac condenser or maybe new fluid.
I'm missing that whole insulation strip! it's on my list to replace the insulation, but my car only goes up to 180-190 in hot weather and it's been cruising kinda lean & running out of fuel after I made some exhaust and suspension changes. I want to upgrade my fuel pump & some other stuff before I start to retune. I also have really under driven my water pump and fan pulley and once I replace the insulation I'll try a bit more under drive. So I don't think that little section is gonna cure your problem.
Also what is "heats up" in temperature?
edit: My car runs cooler than most just FYI, my point was many things can make a car run cooler or hotter.
Anyways looking at your pic reminded me of when I removed my air-intake duct on my 77 and how it went thru that area somewhere. That made me realize I couldn't buy the seal kit for my year and then I looked for a compatible year. Long story short I found others use round pipe insulation and it's much cheaper and will work perfect for me and prob would be a cheap and easy thing to try for yours.
You might be able to get by with just the one distributor spring post. Two weights and two springs will exert the same force as one weight and one spring. The only difference is that one spring may not be forceful enough to return the distributor to zero degrees advance when the engine slows-once the engine revs, the centripetal advance may remain maxed out. Install one weight and spring only (use grease on the post so you don't break the other one also). Run the engine to determine your advance curve.
Thanks, I ordered a replacement HEI unit as the cost of that shaft is awful high. Who know what else might be worn out.
When I drive on the highway it slowly increases in temp until I am around 210-220. After I get off the highway and drive surface streets it slowly drops under 200. I have verified the temp gauge is pretty close via an infrared handheld unit.
Yesterday I installed a new Street Fire HEI distributor. I fired the car up and then realized my timing light was on the fritz, so set the timing by ear. I wanted to set the initial to 14 degrees BTDC as it has 22 degrees of mechanical. I took the car for a ride and it used to accelerate good (for an L-48) to around 4K RPM and then the acceleration would drop off. Now it accelerates well until the transmission shifts. I think the timing is more advanced, which should also help with the highway temps. I limited the vacuum advance to 16 degrees. I am looking forward to see how it does on the highway and getting a new timing light to validate the timing. Thanks Everyone for your suggestions!
if you can limit the vacuum to 10-12 it would be better.
Yes, somewhere recently I read with the quality of gas to limit it to around 10 degrees. I can do that pretty easily as it came with a nice little vacuum advance limit kit.
Thanks, will do as soon as I get the replacement timing light as it is on order.
I am still waiting on the timing light, but decided to drive the car into work this morning. It ran great and seemed to stay cool, although it was perhaps 60. It will be closer to 70 on the way home and sunny, so will see if the advanced timing has fixed the creeping engine temps on the highway.
I think my timing mark on the balancer is off. According to the timing marks I am running 20 degrees BTDC with the vacuum advance disconnected. Centrifigal advance is showing a maximum of 43 degrees at 3,200 RPM. I am getting around 10 degrees more at idle when I connect the vacuum advance line. It seems to me if the timing is really this advanced the car would not run as well as it does, I have also found it runs around 180 on the highway instead of 210+. The car accelerates MUCH better than it did before. It was a waste of time to try to get over 4K RPM previously. I think I may need to add a balancer to the list of things to change on this car. I still have an odd issue with the idle suddenly dropping a couple hundred RPM and becoming rough when it warms up. This happened before and isn't' a new problem.
Your total mechanical advance is a bit high, I'd aim for 36-38 total w/o the vac. So your gonna have to lower your idle timing some. Too light of springs can give you some advance at idle, put the stiffer springs on and see if it lowers(I assume your playing with a curve kit since you changed the weights).
Your prob using more octane than you need for the L48 compression and it runs better with more timing because it has trouble burning the fuel(if your damper hasn't spun). I'm constantly telling people to not use premium unless your compression is right or you can get worse performance and mileage.
A new harmonic damper is a good idea on an older car, just use the correct removal and installation tools.
Too Hot and Distributor Problem
