Autolite 2100 Information.

I have an autolite 2100 on my 66 mustang 289. I need a few bits of info about tuning her. First off, what do i set my wet float level too? I cant find it in my chiltons anywhere or in the documentation that came with my rebuild kit. I dont have the carb tag, but if you need to know any numbers that arent on that tag, i can find them easily enough. Also, i live in Reno NV...kind of a high elevation. Whats a good size of jets to put into this to get me good fuel economy with decent performance? Right now im getting 10 mpg mixed. What should i be expecting to get out of her?

Thanks for your help!

Reply to
Errol Smith
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Sorry I don't have the answers to your questions... But 10 MPG?! That sounds way wrong for a stock 289 in a Mustang. I've been driving my '67 Galaxie beater for the past month since my '68s engine went south and I've been getting ~16 MPG mixed (16.2 on my last tank). My car is a heck of a lot heavier than yours. Also, I'm running '68 302 open chamber heads on my 289 which used to have closed chamber 289 heads, so now I've dropped the compression a lot which reduces power and mileage. To top it off I've got two leaky exhaust valves so two of my cylinders are only getting 75 psi compression while the rest are 100 psi on the dot. Those pressures sound like nothing, but that's what you get with these crappy open chamber heads. I just put them on the car so it would keep running after I snapped a rocker stuff on my closed chamber heads (oops, heh heh). With the closed chamber heads I've seen as much as 18 MPG on the highway. Now I get 16-17 highway and 13-14 around town. This is on an engine with ~201,000 miles, the heads have ~99,000 miles on them.

Anyway, something is definitely not right unless maybe you've got 4.11:1 gears, but I doubt that if you're running an Autolite 2100. You'd probably run out of RPM on the highway at a relatively low MPH. When I first got my grandma's '68 Galaxie with 302 it was getting ~8 MPG. I tuned it well and then saw as high as 17 MPG on the highway. 10 MPG from a small block, especially a stock one, just sounds to me like something is terribly wrong. Unless of course I've got this all wrong and your gas pedal only has two positions. :) Then 10 MPG sounds about right. heh heh

Seriously though, I would expect your 289 Mustang to be doing at least as well as my big Galaxies. Does your exhaust smell rich? What do the plugs look like? Is your vacuum advance working and adjusted properly? You basically want as much advance as possible as soon as possible without pinging. Your advance will have a great affect on mileage (before I replaced my broken vacuum advance unit I was only able to get ~12 MPG on my '68 302 Galaxie). Also make sure none of your brakes are dragging.

Cory

Reply to
Cory Dunkle

Float level should be set at 50%, that would be half way up the bowl. Jets are not an issue with the 2100, use what originally came with the car. I would be more concerned with the lack of mileage your getting, it sounds like it could be more than just the carb. Have you done a compression check? Have your heads been off and rebuilt for use with unleaded gasoline? What about your driving conditions, lots of stop and go traffic, mostly highway, mountains, etc. Finally, how are your personal driving habits? Do you feather the gas, or do you mash it to the floor on more than just a few occasions? All of these items will play a factor in the amount of mileage you get out of a gallon of fuel (which depending on which transmission and rear gear set you have could be as high as 19-22 miles per gallon, even under your higher elevation conditions)..........

Bill S.

Errol Smith wrote:

Reply to
Bill S.

Thanks Cory and Bill. My rear gears are pretty low and my tranny is a

3 speed manual. Before i left for vegas over the summer, i was getting about 12 city and 15 highway. That was with 2 bent valves and one sticking one. I rebuilt the heads in vegas, put a kit in the carburetor, and got a new distributor. One reason for my low mileage was a leaky power valve that would flood my engine everytime i turned it off. When i had the heads rebuilt, they replaced the two valves that were bent. When i adjusted them all, i got 14 of the 16 adjusted with no noise at all. The 2 that are still clattering around seem to be the two new ones. When i tried to adjust them with the valve covers off, those two just kept rattling and rattling as i tightened and tightened. You cant really hear it at idle, but when i accelerate theyre kidna loud. Whent he engine is cruising down the highway or ont he road at a constant speed, they dont rattle (or at least you cant hear it) but whenever i give it gas, the rattlign comes back. Im sure its just from the 2 new ones. I didnt replace the rocker arms or the pushrods, They dont seem to be affecting any other part of the valve train except this part here. Could i just keep tighteneing them till they stop? I got scared of over-tightening and stopped after about 1 turn in. Any help would be appreciated....thanks!
Reply to
Errol Smith

"Errol Smith" wrote in a message:

Sounds more like pinging if it only does it when you are accelerating. Check the timing, both initial and total. You may have to back the timing off a little, or you can try higher octane fuel.

Reply to
GEB

Thanks Geb, i tried both and the pinging is still there. Im not so sure it is pinging however. The noise is still there when the engine isnt under a load, but its gets louder when i accelerate. What would happen if i over tightened thses two valves on this one cylinder?

Reply to
Errol Smith

"Errol Smith" wrote in a message:

If you over tighten the rocker arms, the valves will not return to the seat, and will pop either through the intake or exhaust, depending on which one it is. If backing the timing off and trying higher octane fuel didn't help, then I'd suspect either a blown exhaust gasket between the exhaust manifold and head, exhaust donut between exhaust manifold and pipe (if car is an early model), and/or a cracked exhaust manifold. With the hood up, and car running, have someone hold their hand or a big rag over the exhaust pipe, and try to seal it, while you listen closely to the areas of the exhaust. If one of the things I mentioned is the problem, you should be able to detect it. Hope this helps.

Reply to
GEB

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