[Bob Carriere]

Hi Terry

Survived another Xmas........ came back from TO today...... in freezing rain.... 401 was shut down on the East side and a parking lot for us heading East bound...... in a section that dips and curves near Brighton over 9 or 10 transport we all smashed up.... I mean broken up with cargo spewed all over.... more large and extra large two trucks and cranes trying to unload steel coils off the wrecks onto safe flatbeds.....

Back to reality..... I suspect that that your vacuum connection to the carb port is/may be to blame for such a low reading and the engine still running good. That vaccum port is only intended for the dizzy vacuum pot I beleive.

But you are on to solution when you say you will need a spacer for a proper vaccum and wiper connection. Originally my 1959 Chev 261 had a vaccum port on the square chamber just below the carb phenolic insulator. But when I went to install the engince cover there was not sufficient space for that original fitting so it was removed and plugged.

I had a local metal fabricator cut out a spacer from 7/8 flat stock based on the outline of the phenolic insulator. Had him drill and tap three 3/8 holes for future vacuum connections. I used thin paper gasket between all surfaces and the thick gasket with the groves immediately below the carburator. My centre hole matches the 2 15/16 in. bore of the carburator. One hole is currently used for the wipers..... which work quite well.... and the other for my permanently mounted vaccum gauge.... mounted below the dash left of the steering wheel.... the 3rd hole is used for the PCV.

Are you saying that you do not have a PCV or it is not connected??? or are you using just a open draft tube...?

now for the photos.

I really think that if you were connected to the full vacuum of the manifold you would be getting a different reading.

Coil wise I am running a Pertronix 40K coil and no resistor.... runs fine. This is my second Pertronix..... the first one was installed in the original 1959 tall dizzy cap distributor..... which I found did not have sufficient clearance for the darn engine cover panels.... so I used a NOS 216 low cap dizzy with a new PErtronix as the old one from the later tall dizzy did not fit inside the older 216 distributor.

Cheers

PS.... first picture shows the Rochester B second shows the Carter YF.

Also elected to make use of the steam vent line on the head. We originally installed it with a valve in the system. We would run the engine until well hot than open the valve and see all the foam and bubbles vent to the radiator through the clear vinyl line. We concluded that it was worth while to have it connected permanently and replaced it with a repro steel brake line, covered in fabric as per the original, and it has served us well so far.