Dave don't you love the sound of the 140 when it's idling? It'll also bleed off a lot of dynamic comp which will make your pistons very happy!
I had the first Z in 80/81, I was just 20 years old. These cars were very cheap then and they were plentiful and just used cars. I paid $4200 for a fathom green 69Z with green interior, 8K tach, console gages, 302, M21, 3.73 gears. I ran the stock distributor and most point sets wouldn't let the car rev to it's potential, it was still making good power when the points would float. Blue Streak made a HD point set, probably still do, that a lot of the older guys suggested I try. They worked great, but the stiffer pressure caused the nylon block to wear on the ramp a little quicker.
I haven't run a stock distributor in years, but if I did I'd look for that point set again.
I was young and foolish, now I'm old and foolish. The car saw the 8K tach buried often. At 20 you're invicible, throw in a scattershield and nothing bad can happen right? I had a couple good friends that would come over late at night and we'd wrench on our cars, when we got hungry I often tossed my keys to one of them and let them drive. Everyone wanted to drive a 302 car and I wanted my buddies to experience it. I always told them hold the pedal to the floor, when the tach sees 8K leave the pedal to the floor and pull the shifter back into second gear. Most were afraid to abuse the car this way, but occasionally one would and the look on their face was priceless. I'm glad I was able to share the experience with my buddies. The little V8 doesn't sound like a V8 when it's twisting that high.
By the way, after each blast through 8K I usually listened closely to make sure I hadn't hurt anything, only one time did I ever hurt that first 302. I had a pushrod and rocker break. But I never hurt the bottom end of the motor, no matter how hard I tried.
Thats one heckuva a "points test". But I dont doubt it.
