Reply to "Cooling and ignition advance"

With a carburetor and no air pump, egr, the leanest you can be THEORETICALLY is stoiochemic which is 14.7:1. This is only safe for idle since there is no load on the engine.

If you are attempting to reach this a/f ratio at cruise I wonder why? All you are doing is melting you valves and burning out the headers right near the mounting flanges.

You don't need to get fancy equipment to read this. You will see the headers glowing red in the dark, and you will see your spark plugs melting the tips off.

The leanest running carb that you can safely use is a Ford Motorcraft Holley 4180.

For a performance setup you can use a 84-85 Mustang GT carb but I have found that the 84-85 Ford Truck carbs are cheaper and have a simpler automatic choke.

Either of these carbs, untampered with, will give you the safest lean idle you can get out of the box and either can be set up to run economically. As a matter of fact, the E4 truck carb is probably what you want right there and you shouldn't even need to rejet it.

The idle should be set to run at 775-800 rpm as is. If it idles too fast, you will need to turn down the advance until you get it where you want it.

Don't expect any rpm over about 5,200 rpm though with the carb stock. That is all they are designed to offer.

Cruise a/f is going to be more like 12.5 to 13, which is lean with any carb.

If this isn't good enough for you, go to EFI. That's the only way you can do better but you still risk destroying the valves and seats, not to mention cracking the pistons if you insist on running ridiculously lean with a 351c.

Yes, you aren't imagining the engine running hotter lean...because it is.

A 160 thermostat in a Pantera is a good idea. The engine does not need to constantly operate over 212F. It just needs to reach close to that once during it's running cycle to clean the sludge out of the engine oil.

In summer weather it should idle up within about 1 minute and with this thermostat the fans will only come on at idle in traffic. Moving on the road they will not run.

The engine will show around 200F operating normally.

If you try to run on regular grade fuel 87 octane, the engine will run hotter as well.

A wheel only works one way, it has to round.