Straight into the deep end? Head Gasket?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Nut already answered, but one other note:

Those "two little cans" on the outside of your distributor are the condensers for the points, and your '78 spider has dual points so you have two condensers. Adjusting timing on cars with dual points is a little trickier as the ignition will switch between the two points depending on temperature, and so the timing will change.

-Bryan

[MMRMVA]

Thanks. I’ll give this shot. We tried a drive yesterday and it was not nearly as smooth. Still wants to stall out on initial acceleration, like from a stop into first, I had to give it plenty of rev. It was not as warmed up as the other day when it ran smoothly, so Bryan maybe your comment is contributing, with the dual points.

We still have the oil leak from the dizzy, so maybe we’ll just up and replace it altogether. Any recommendations?

[Nut124]

I would consider an upgrade to electronic ignition.

I would look for the coil/ICM heat sink on the secondary market, junk yards. Then just need the -79 or later dizzy and the little HEI ICM. Your old coil might be OK.

[MMRMVA]

We have not had much time in the garage lately, but I wanted to report back.

We tuned the carb again, following these instructions on Redline;http://www.redlineweber.com/html/Tech/c ... _best_.htm

This seems to have mostly helped with our idle and acceleration, and we've been able to take it out for a few spins around the neighborhood. I will not say it is as smooth as we would like, but given where we where going to take it as a victory on this particular thread.

Started timing it per Nuts specs, but connecting the timing light to the alternator caused sparks and then we had no juice, nothing, not even the horn. Checked the battery, fine. Fuses, one looked busted so we changed it. Nothing. Walked away for 25 minutes, and then it worked again. Any thoughts?

We'll go back and try Nuts timing at a later date. I'll consider this thread over at this point, as the head gasket job is "done". You guys were so much help! Thank you one last time (here anyway). Sure we'll be making new threads elsewhere.

-Matt and Ryan

[Nut124]

The post at the back of the alternator is connected to the +12V battery post. Sparks will fly if you short the post to the alternator body or brackets.

[MMRMVA]

Any better place to put my timing light clamp?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Any better place to put my timing light clamp?

Your '78 spider has the battery in the trunk, right? You can connect the timing light to any source of plus and minus for 12 volts, even another car's battery or a stand-alone battery. On your Fiat, a source of +12V is the B+ terminal on the coil, or the alternator post. For both of these, you have to be very careful that the clips for the timing light don't touch anything else (as Nut pointed out). Unless you want to do primitive arc welding, which is probably not what you want here...

-Bryan