Wanted to poke more heads about carb tuning once again. In terms of choosing a power valve, for a truck that will be spending a lot of time on the street in normal driving conditions, occasionally loaded, what would be the ideal way to figure out what power valve I need?

Ive heard of the idle vacuum / 2, cruise vacuum / 2, cruise vacuum - 2, and some others but what would be the most ideal way to run it in my situation? I changed over to 64 primaries and it definitely has a slight “bucking” on medium throttle but I haven’t been able to look at cruise vacuum yet, I’m hoping my vacuum line for my gauge is long enough to snake into the cab.

I think I have 20 inches or so at idle, and it is a 5 speed so I would be tuning at idle in neutral. I will check cruise again but it’s probably not that far off. Honestly, unless my gauge is just cheap, I feel like 20 is a lot of vacuum for even a mild cam. Idle floats around maybe 700rpm or so.

I currently have a 6.5 PV as that’s what came stock but I feel like it barely opens and I’m sure if I get the right PV I can lower the jets in the primaries and milk out more mpg as the PV will be feeding the fuel when a load is applied and I can have small jets for cruising.

 

Have you looked at forabodiesonly.com ?
The problem with this forum (1st Gen, Dakotas) is everything is fuel injected.......
There are some pretty good articles over there on tuning holleys.
I always heard the power valve should be half of the idle vacuum.
But there is a lot more, ie. squirters etc.
Sorry, I really dont have any experience tuning them. I took mine, cleaned it up, put a kit in it, and ran it. I feel sure there is lots of room for improvement, but just havent had the time.

 

Here is a link that has some pretty good info. FWIW I need to start reading myself!

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar...ection.567572/

 

The guys on the a body forum helped me out a ton, got a bunch of things figured out while also tinkering on my own. Now I have a couple more basic questions, one of which I believe was talked about before in this thread but I couldn't find it on a search so I figured I'd just ask again.

For oil pans, I did get a new Dorman oil pan from RA when I rebuilt the motor, and I kind of neglected the fact that it wasn't truly flat on the mating surfaces. I think I figured the bolts along with the gasket would create a good enough seal. I plan now to just get one from a junkyard truck, an OEM one, as it's still leaking quite a bit from the timing cover/oil pan mating surface so as a sanity check I want to throw in an OEM pan, but I know they differ based on the setup of the truck. I need a specific one, but when I go on car-part.com to look at junkyard inventories it says that the pans from 4x4 full sizes also fit, but I remember there was a difference between the 2wd and 4wd oil pans. Was this a Dakota exclusive thing or was it just 2wd/4wd Dodge trucks in general?

Second thing was about spark plug gap. I know in 1992 the recommended gap was .035 which is what I currently have my plugs set at, but in 1999 (the year of my engine, I know it's really no different than a 1992 5.9), they bumped it up to .040. I also read that with HEI you can run .045-.055 as you have more energy in the spark so you can open the gap to give the plug "more fuel" to ignite. Would it be beneficial at all to increase the spark to .045? If I had to guess the reason why the plug gap changed while the engine didn't would be gas quality changes overtime?

 

Gas quality changes, and so does quality of the coil. With a meaner coil, you can run a larger gap, and you get more efficient combustion.

 

Maybe means I can get better mpg I measured about 15 highway on a 250 mile drive to school, but that was when it was 20 degrees going 80 in the wind lol. New transmission internals means higher OD ratio

 

What about changing heat range? Or is that really only when you go forced induction/increase compression?

 

I try and stick with manufacturer recommendations, unless there are mitigating circumstances. (misfires from too hot/cold of a plug, or too large of a gap... etc.)

 

Alright gents, I have returned for another question lol. I've been leaving a lot of the carburetor related questions to the guys on the a body forum, and have been helped immensely, but I think this question is more fitting for this forum.

So obviously the Dakotas have front discs and rear drums for the brakes, in my case I have the 10 inch drums. I have been trying to figure out where exactly this squealing sound is coming from and its definitely brake related but I can't tell if its front or back. While I'm driving, I hear a squealing sound that goes away if I'm on the brakes, if I tap them it goes away for a second or two then comes back. My front rotors are warped and I am going to replace them along with calipers and pads and hoses. But I'm not very familiar with rear drums. I did replace everything but the cylinders and lines in the rear, but that's all I did. Do drums typically squeal like discs do?

I know one of my calipers is sticking, but does it make sense for a caliper that is sticking to not cause a pull, and I guess kind of compress the pads when the brake is pressed, release when the pedal is released, then slightly go back into the rotor again a second later so the pads are contacting again?

 

No, drums are generally pretty quiet, if all the parts are in good shape. I wonder if what you are hearing is the wear sensors on the front pads.... Your symptoms sure do sound that way.