sorry... but more desmog questions

[Nemesis Gnat]

i hate to start up anoooother desmog thread, but my questions arent answered really in the old threads, and i didnt wanna resurrect an oldy just for a question tacked on at the end...

but, im trying to do a desmog to a 2f as per that diagram that everyone has and always posts...my smog pump is making that familiar "about to die at the worst moment" noise, and the rest of the smog system has seen better days. so heres my issue: i dont have the downtime (its my one and only vehicle) or money to send off the carb for a rebuild and the dist for a recurve... i assume its better, and probably a really good idea to do this at the same time, but can i get away with running the distributor at the factory curve setting and the carb a lil rich as per factory settings?

ill be doing some long highway drives, and a lot of hilly driving to and from boulder, co from my house at 7 something thousand feet, sooo not the easiest driving conditions in the world.

and if its not a good idea to run stock settings until i can save up dough and time, is it easy enough to adjust the stuff myself? im pretty darn mechanically inclined, i just dont have a lot of experience with motors... but im more than willing to learn, and what better time than now?

thanks!

 

[cstamm81]

in my research, you have to watch out for pinging due to bad timing after a desmog. Best time to hear pinging IMO is lugging it up a hill in a gear too high. Other than that, you can check spark plugs to see if there are any small specs of metal on them, cause from roe detonation I believe. This is how I always checked high compression drag cars, so I can't see why it would be any different here. Also, on the dissy, switch the two vaccum lines that go to the dissy advance. This will eliminate spark knock as per JimC.
So while it would be best to get the dissy recurved and carb adjusted properly, I doubt you will hurt much running it this way. Let's be honest, how many of these 60 series are running optimally or even have been for many many years. I say try it out and run it for awhile, then when you have the time do the dissy and carb. Or, buy a used dissy and carb, send it off to JimC, then swap it out. That way no down time.