Rough Idle

[FoLola]

My 63 R2.5 (R2 with R3 modifications) seems to have a roughness up to about 2000 RPM. There are lots of MoPar's, Chevy's and Ford's that one can listen to and compare; not so much with Avanti's. So it may just be the R3 cam doing its thing. I have checked compression (160-170 on all 8 cylinders), timing, plug gap, wires, cap/rotor, Pertronix gap, valves (.025 hot), firing order. The engine pulls strong, doesn't spit or backfire. Am I chasing a problem that doesn't exist?

BTW- Nice write-up on the Ganatelli display at the World of Speed Motorsports Museum, Wilsonville OR, in the latest Avanti magazine. The display will run through 2018 so be sure to stop by on the way to Tacoma.

[FoLola]

To Recap:

I set the timing on the Avanti R2 according to the manual. That's when it started having a "miss." It was as if two plug wires were switched (they weren't). I just installed the new much gooder distributor and the car runs like an Avanti should.

So I did an autopsy on the old distributor. It looks like the trigger for the Hall Effect was not in "sync" with the position of the rotor, causing a wide gap that may or may not send juice to the correct plug. When the timing was retarded that problem was lessened but it had no grunt. 

 

All is well!

 

On another note: The World of Speed Museum just got the 1948 Indy car that Andy Granatelli tried to qualify for the 500. He crashed it during qualifying and that was the end of his driving career. Its a front drive Miller with an Offy 270. Very cool car with lots of patina. I can post pictures if anyone is interested.