[mechman600]

I was tinkering on my recently acquired $400 Winter beater today. I set up the dwell and then went on to the timing. The spec is 7 deg advance at 750 rpm with the vacuum advance disconnected. Disconnecting it did not make any difference anyway, as it is ported in the carb. Just for fun, I hooked the vacuum advance directly to the manifold and not only did the timing jump to about 25 degrees (as would be expected), but the idle increased to about 1200 rpm as well.

Now I am thinking. Would the engine not be idling more efficiently at full vacuum advance, with the throttle position being identical yet the idle speed has increased? Would it do well to hook the vacuum advance up this way permanently and adjust the idle accordingly?