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Vintage 1970 164 altitude adjustments?

deadbeef

New member
Joined
Jan 16, 2017
Location
New Mexico, USA
My 164 tends to idle kind of rough once it's warmed up, lots of missing and sometimes as I pull away from the stop it'll stumble. It's also pretty low on power in general. What do I need to do to make sure it's properly set up for the mile-high altitude here in Albuquerque? I'm not very familiar with these carburetors.
 
What carburetors are you talking about?

Usually, a leaner mixture is needed at higher altitudes.
Perhaps leaner needles will solve your issues.

But, you have already checked all the basics like compression, fuel delivery and air delivery, right?
Edit: Check ignition components too.
 
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It should have Stromberg 175 carbs. The jet tubes are pressed in to the body. To adjust the mixture you'll either need to change to different needles or you'll need special tools to adjust the jet tubes.

Are you in an area where ethanol is added to the fuel? If so, that will cause the engine to run lean. As mentioned above, check the basics first.
 
Ignition timing is key. Higher altitude allows you to advance the timing more, and enjoy better performance and efficiency. Leaner needles will help, too. With one of my 71 164's, I used a water injection system so I could run serious advance, but the drawback was that the water res was too small and I would run out of water on my return commute (2000 ft elev differential) and it would ping its butt off for the last few miles. Pain in the butt to pull over and fill it up.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry I forgot to specify the carburetors, they are indeed Strombergs. I have poked around at a few things (set the points, for one) but haven't really gone through the entire ignition system so I'll try to do that this week. The timing's set at ~10 degrees at idle, which is what the manual specified so I left it alone--I'll try advancing it.
 
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