I know there are tons of threads about timing and idle, but I have a quick question on the subject matter. Now, I had my engine rebuilt and it was bored out a bit and whatnot. I've been going by the standard settings for timing and idle set by the shop manual. It runs fine, but considering I had it rebuilt, it feels like it could run a lot better.

Am I using the right settings or does the fact that it was bored out call for different settings?

Also, going off the reservation, but are there spacers on the market that will allow me to put a double barrel carb on a 200 6cyl? And would doing so be a good idea?

 

Boring it won't affect timing requirements. Different intake/cam/heads etc will.

As far as the carb, not really. The stock intake mostly sucks from a performance standpoint. Fine for what it's intended, but not really anything to gain from going to a different carb. And carb adapters still choke the flow down anyway as though the carb weren't even changed.

 

I want to say that a better cam was put in and...slightly bigger heads?
Should I just time it using a vacuum gauge? I've heard that generally works better. Though, I'm not well versed in that... (Good time to learn, though. )

And thank you for clearing that carb question up for me, as well as helping with the initial question.

 

Most cars will run/idle better with more timing than factory timing from the 60's and 70's. A stockish engine, anywhere from 10-14 at idle maybe.

 

So, to do this by vacuum, I just hook up a pressure gauge to the manifold and adjust the distributor until it's a stable 10-14? Specs on the 200 say 17, so is the lower the number the better?

 

Check out www.classicinlines.com. they have carb adapters to fit 2bbl carbs on your 6

 

You might try looking here for performance options.

http://fordsix.com/forum/

Stack 4-6 sheets of regular paper. That is about how much your engine was bored out. Boring does almost nothing for performance in your case. It will use the same settings.

I would confirm you have a stock camshaft when attempting to compare vacuum readings with the book. If your cam is stock it's not tuned correctly or has a vacuum leak.

 

Don't set idle by vacuum. If the book says 17 degrees timing at idle then go with 17. That's pretty decent idle timing.

 

Are you sure your not mixing some numbers here?.

10-14 would be your timing
17 would be the vacuum it will have on a stock engine(higher vacuum=better)
You mabye have a bit lower because you changed your cam.