A buddy from my days at Grand Forks AFB in the early seventies stopped by and we got to taking about old Lionel trains. Glen is a model train buff, member of a couple of clubs and asked if he could see my fifties vintage Lionels that I packed away in my dad's old hard leather suitcase 20 years ago when I was clearing out the house in Seattle where I grew up after my mom passed away.
Low and behold, in addition to all the Lionel rolling stock there was the original 201 15 VAC (No, it's not for sale.) from my 340 HP SWC. I thought it was long gone.
It's in excellent condition other than a gouge where it impinged against the inlet manifold from having the gear on backwards. The first time I removed and disassembled it in an attempt to find out why the ignition often broke up at high revs, I couldn't get the initial timing correct before the VAC hit the inlet manifold. I recall talking to some "experts" about the problem, and they said to move the wires, etc. Those guys were clueless, and, of course, they're still out there offering the same lame advice.
After removing it another couple of times to figure out the problem I noticed the dimple on the 13-tooth gear. Ah-ha I thought. If I rotate the gear 180 degrees that might solve the problem. There's nothing about properly indexing the dimple in any service manuals that I know of, so you just had to figure it out yourself, which I did as an 18-year old college freshman in mechanical engineering. Of course, once I rotated the gear, which put the dimple in line with the rotor tip and reindexed the wires back to their original positions IAW the '63 shop manual, all was well.
The 201 15 was only installed about another year as I figured out a year later, circa 1966, that this 15" VAC was not suited to the 12" manifold vacuum of the Duntov cam and was the likely cause of the idle instability and stalling that plagued the engine since new. It didn't meet the "Two-Inch Rule" though I had not formulated that little gem of truth at that time.
I bought an 8" 236 16 VAC plus the '64-'65 centrifugal weights and springs to update the distributor to '64-'65 SHP/FI specs. In addition to a stable 850-900 idle, the quicker centrifugal produced a noticeable SOTP improvement in low end torque, which really helped since the CR T-10 is coupled to a 3.08 axle.
Apparently I left the old VAC somewhere in the basement, found it when I was packing up the Lionel trains, and tucked it into the old suitcase, but forgot that it was there.
The 201 15 was OE on all '63 Corvette engines and some later ported advance applications like L-71 and LT-1, but it wasn't available through service parts after about 1965. It was replaced with the ...163 which is a boat anchor as it may require up to 18" to pull to the limit, which doesn't even meet the Two-Inch Rule for a base engine with manual transmission.
As a result, an original 201 15 in good condition is a rare find, nowadays.
Duke
Low and behold, in addition to all the Lionel rolling stock there was the original 201 15 VAC (No, it's not for sale.) from my 340 HP SWC. I thought it was long gone.
It's in excellent condition other than a gouge where it impinged against the inlet manifold from having the gear on backwards. The first time I removed and disassembled it in an attempt to find out why the ignition often broke up at high revs, I couldn't get the initial timing correct before the VAC hit the inlet manifold. I recall talking to some "experts" about the problem, and they said to move the wires, etc. Those guys were clueless, and, of course, they're still out there offering the same lame advice.
After removing it another couple of times to figure out the problem I noticed the dimple on the 13-tooth gear. Ah-ha I thought. If I rotate the gear 180 degrees that might solve the problem. There's nothing about properly indexing the dimple in any service manuals that I know of, so you just had to figure it out yourself, which I did as an 18-year old college freshman in mechanical engineering. Of course, once I rotated the gear, which put the dimple in line with the rotor tip and reindexed the wires back to their original positions IAW the '63 shop manual, all was well.
The 201 15 was only installed about another year as I figured out a year later, circa 1966, that this 15" VAC was not suited to the 12" manifold vacuum of the Duntov cam and was the likely cause of the idle instability and stalling that plagued the engine since new. It didn't meet the "Two-Inch Rule" though I had not formulated that little gem of truth at that time.
I bought an 8" 236 16 VAC plus the '64-'65 centrifugal weights and springs to update the distributor to '64-'65 SHP/FI specs. In addition to a stable 850-900 idle, the quicker centrifugal produced a noticeable SOTP improvement in low end torque, which really helped since the CR T-10 is coupled to a 3.08 axle.
Apparently I left the old VAC somewhere in the basement, found it when I was packing up the Lionel trains, and tucked it into the old suitcase, but forgot that it was there.
The 201 15 was OE on all '63 Corvette engines and some later ported advance applications like L-71 and LT-1, but it wasn't available through service parts after about 1965. It was replaced with the ...163 which is a boat anchor as it may require up to 18" to pull to the limit, which doesn't even meet the Two-Inch Rule for a base engine with manual transmission.
As a result, an original 201 15 in good condition is a rare find, nowadays.
Duke
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