So, I realized that the vacuum port on the back of the carb that was going to the power brake booster was not a 'solid' fitting, it was a brass fitting that was meant to be pressure fit on the inside.. it was 2 pieces.. the nipple part and the nut part that had the threads on it to screw into the carb body... and it was wobbly.. so it was clearly a source of vacuum leak. I went out and got a solid 1 piece brass fitting and took your advice, and plugged it off for the sake of the tuning process. I blocked off the vacuum port going to the distributor too. I am wondering if something else is going on ...because even when I move the timing to 18 degrees at idle, it barely wanted to idle at 900 rpm. Then, when I revved it up, it would go up to about 38 degrees advance.
when I hooked up the vacuum advance back to the distributor, the idle timing jumped up to about 38 at idle, and when revving, it went all the way up to about 55 degrees. How is that possible?
I freaking hate this crap. I'll take body and paint work over this any day. I shoulda just dropped a Mustang 5.0 in the Miata and been done!
Think I may put a posting up on Craigslist looking for someone who knows how to tune Mopar engines in the Sacramento area, and see if I can get someone local to do it for me.
