Poor Acceleration

the rear gear is probably the #1 suspect by a longshot, the very common 2.75:1 ratio is more suited to Bonneville than mildly spirited stop light take-offs.

i think Vince is in the market for a 3rd member upgrade, any leads or advice?

next on the list is what we call the tune-up. not changing spark plugs but altering the ignition spark 'curve' to be more performance oriented. a 1971 2V did not come with a performance ignition curve from Ford, initial base ignition timing is fairly low with a lot of travel inside the mechanical advance system. for better performance you want the opposite, high initial around 16*-18* and less travel in the distributor. Ford actually made it kind of easy to make the switch by providing a 2nd unused advance slot on the opposite side of the part. hopefully all you have to do is switch it around to the shorter advance slot if the distributor is using the long slot.

does your distributor still have breaker points installed? worn or not perfectly adjusted breaker points will kill power, efficiency & performance faster than . if you still have points get yourself a module to replace them like Pertronix or similar. worth every penny. faster starts, smoother idle, high reliability and never set points again

some will point out that the C6 transmission uses up more power than a C4, i'd stick with the stronger transmission and make more power!

when do you want to talk about a cam?

get yourself a timing light. it doesn't have to be expensive or fancy but a 'dial back' feature is nice, almost a requirement because the scale on the stock balancer isn't graduated out to 40 or more degrees BTDC. the dial back can be used to find what your total timing is by turning the dial up until the light shows 0 on the scale while holding rpm at full advance. that would be your total timing )with the vacuum hose to the dizzy plugged) generally total timing should be around 36*-38* but some engines make best power higher or lower depending upon a few things.

the 1st thing i would do is set initial at 16* (vac plugged) and find what your total is. this will show how much timing degrees needs to be eliminated from the mechanical advance mechanism. say if stock timing is 6* btdc and it's set spot on, you advance it by 10* to 16* initial and it bumps the total to 46* .... you'd want to remove that same 10* from the internal mechanism of the distributor.

here's a tutorial on doing a recurve, the magic lies in the advance slot

http://www.reincarnation-automotive.com/Duraspark_distributor_recurve_instructions_index.html

don't miss the 2nd page

a couple quirks about ignition timing; if you have points, dwell affects timing but timing does not affect dwell. as points wear and deteriorate the dwell reading is constantly changing. so is your spark timing. also, a good ignition spark curve will be at odds with a terrible rear gear. the distributor will be ready for action and the rear end ready for a nap resulting in ping and detonation.

have you ever checked to see what's inside the dizzy cap?

as far as the conflict between original and every magazine bling item on the internet, you can build decent performance using stock or stock looking parts. the carb anyone can understand, the manifold screams aftermarket but again most will accept it under the weight savings program. a cam you can't see at all and it doesn't have to make the engine run like it's trying to jump out of the engine bay at idle. a cam can be spec'd to run smooth at idle and run the bag off at WOT

Yes, but a little too pricey for me, so I just ended up replacing the clutches and bearings. I will have to update my project post at some point.

I was looking at one of these in either Trac-Lok

Or True Track:

Yes that would make a big difference for sure, i guess we all overlooked that one

how is it now, is there any bog or hesitation when they open or does it just take the off like a skeert rabbit?

if the spring is too light the secondaries will have a 'light switch' effect but if the spring is right you might not even be able to tell when they open,

it'll just accelerate smoothly