General Questions about 1966 Mustang 200 and porformance

I just got my engine rebuilt after 5 years of sitting still and dead (along with a new gas tank, and allot of parts). I am wondering what I can do to improve the engine's idle and performance. Will parts like an MSD coil and electronic igination, better carb., etc help ? Is this overkill for a car that is only going to be driven on the weekends ? I still have to replace some parts that are old like the voltage regulator, coil, Carb, and other parts.

I am new to this form, thanks in advance for any responses.

picture of engine:
http://codeman.dyndns.org/mustang/

Howdy ChrisFarmer:

Welcome to the best Ford Six forum anywhere.

A couple of questions- Do you intend to maintain stock appearance? Is this going to be a restoration? Your Sprint air cleaner is super cool!

A stock carb and ignition can be made to run quite well and are easily improved upon. The stock Autolite 1100 carb and Load-a-matic distributor are designed to work together. A limitation is this distributor has vacuum advance only- not good. This carb is very susceptible to dirt, but kits are cheap and they are easy to rebuild. Clean is critical!

The '68 to '77 Carter YF carb and '68 to '74 point type distributor are more sophisticated in design and offer better idle, performance and driveability. The YF carb requires either adaptation to maintain stock linkage or conversion to a throttle cable and pedal. I believe that your Sprint Air Cleaner can be adapted to the YF carb.

Either your stock distributor or the later point type can be improved with a Petronix Ignitor electronic conversion and their coil.

The '76 and later DuraSpark II electronic ignition system eliminates points for a set-and-forget deal. It is compatible with either of these carbs. It includes the distributor, coil, module, plug wires and harness.

IMHO a distributor upgrade would be 1st on my list of suggestions. If you wish to maintain stock appearance use the '68 - '72, with a Pertronix Ignitor upgrade. If not, then step up to a DuraSpark II from '76 or later.

Click on the FordSix.Com Icon at the top and check out several articles in the FAQ section for other ideas.

Enjoy the journey.

Adios, David

Howdy ChrisFarmer:

Welcome to the best Ford Six forum anywhere.

A couple of questions- Do you intend to maintain stock appearance? Is this going to be a restoration? Your Sprint air cleaner is super cool!

A stock carb and ignition can be made to run quite well and are easily improved upon. The stock Autolite 1100 carb and Load-a-matic distributor are designed to work together. A limitation is this distributor has vacuum advance only- not good. This carb is very susceptible to dirt, but kits are cheap and they are easy to rebuild. Clean is critical!

The '68 to '77 Carter YF carb and '68 to '74 point type distributor are more sophisticated in design and offer better idle, performance and driveability. The YF carb requires either adaptation to maintain stock linkage or conversion to a throttle cable and pedal. I believe that your Sprint Air Cleaner can be adapted to the YF carb.

Either your stock distributor or the later point type can be improved with a Petronix Ignitor electronic conversion and their coil.

The '76 and later DuraSpark II electronic ignition system eliminates points for a set-and-forget deal. It is compatible with either of these carbs. It includes the distributor, coil, module, plug wires and harness.

IMHO a distributor upgrade would be 1st on my list of suggestions. If you wish to maintain stock appearance use the '68 - '72, with a Pertronix Ignitor upgrade. If not, then step up to a DuraSpark II from '76 or later.

Click on the FordSix.Com Icon at the top and check out several articles in the FAQ section for other ideas.

Enjoy the journey.

Adios, David