Differences with "california" vs rest

[Radiant-Designer]

Ok so this is something thats been kinda irking me lately... my truck was a California truck up till a few months ago, now its 3,000 miles away on the complete other coast. I had been buying and setting things based on "California" becuase i figured that the timing or engine or something was a little different, or maybe just emissions,

 

one thing i noticed is when i changed the plugs and gaped them for California, it ran a little rougher, not much, but a little, i figured maybe one of my gaps was off and a few days later i checked again and all seemed to be good. I always keep my old parts, especially when they were still good when I took them off, i just changed these becuase its what i do when i buy a car, that way I know it was done.

 

Well the other day I grabbed one of the old plugs to plug up a Vacuume line when installing my webers (temp thing to make sure it was running right, I already changed it out) and while I was cleaning everything up at the end of the install i looked at the plug and its a NKG that is not a "california" plug, and the gap is also not the california spec. Would i be better off going with the non-california from now on?

 

Oh and I took out all the California smog stuff, the EGR, the Anti Backfire valve, the air circulator, and all that when I put the weber carb on.

[jefe de jefes]

What type of distributor are you running.

Generally when using an electronic dizzy it is recommended to open up the spark plug gap.

[schicksal]

Correct me if I am wrong if you look at any spark plug catalog spark plugs should be the same no matter what coast you are in also gap is the same. The thing that would change would be ignition timing and the other smog equipment. Maybe you used a different brand of plug I have found out that Datsun engines run best on NGK plugs.

[Radiant-Designer]

Actually look at most datsun books, sites Abd even the owners manual, they have a California and non california plug listed. Also different plug gaps.

 

I have the Calif stock electric distributor.

[Z chopper]

spark plug gap can be changed to be more efficient at different altitudes, not sure if a bigger gap is needed in NH or smaller though, some of us don't seem to bother regappping etc... it is whole science unto itself.

[DanielC]

This is a generalization, but may help. A larger gap helps idle, because there is simply more spark area to light the mixture. At idle, the pressure inside the cylinder is relativity low, and it is easy to force a spark to jump the larger gap.

When you open the throttle, it is harder to make the spark jump the gap, so a larger gap may cause a misfire then.

But it should be easy to find a good gap, if the other parts of the ignition system are good. How old are the wires, the cap, the rotor?

[flatcat19]

It's sad that California was messing with cars all the way back to 1977.

If you already ditched all the smog stuff, why continue to abide by California anything?

[datzenmike]

The only difference between a '77 620 California ignition and everywhere else is:

 

The California dizzy was a remote igniter EI type while everyne else were running points. It had a different vacuum advance setting and likely a vacuum advance delay module in line.

 

A lower impedance EI coil without a ballast resister would be on the California model.

 

EI systems should run wider 0.038-0.041" gap plugs. Otherwise the plugs are the same.

 

Base timing may have been a couple of degrees lower than the 12 BTDC everywhere else.

 

 

This is a generalization, but may help. A larger gap helps idle, because there is simply more spark area to light the mixture. At idle, the pressure inside the cylinder is relativity low, and it is easy to force a spark to jump the larger gap.

When you open the throttle, it is harder to make the spark jump the gap, so a larger gap may cause a misfire then.

But it should be easy to find a good gap, if the other parts of the ignition system are good. How old are the wires, the cap, the rotor?

 

 

Well put.

[ggzilla]

gaped them for California, it ran a little rougher, not much, but a little,

Did you gap them tighter? It will result in a slighter rougher idle. The california smog equipment would handle that.

[Z-train]

It's sad that California was messing with cars all the way back to 1977.

If you already ditched all the smog stuff, why continue to abide by California anything?

Try 1967.And there is no point pulling all the emissions stuff off.

[Radiant-Designer]

Try 1967.And there is no point pulling all the emissions stuff off.

I did becuase I put a Weber on and had to bypass all the vac lines anyway so I took them all out to make more room and make it look a tiny bit cleaner.