318 Point Dwell Adjustment

[71318Swinger]

I have a 1971 Dodge Dart Swinger with the 318 that had not been running quite right so I replaced the points and adjusted with a gap meter to .016 and it still wasn't just right so i got my hands on a dwell meter and hooked it up got the car running to regular temperature and it was running at about 25 degrees where as according to my shop manual it should be somewhere closer to 35 degrees, what I'm looking to find out is if anyone knows what the best dwell to run at is and if there is a way to test dwell while being able to adjust the gap with dwell meter hooked up

 

[camd64]

set your dwell to about 30 degrees. the gap is to get you in the ball park so it will run then your dwell is the most important setting. just hook up a dwell meter to fine tune it and forget about the gap.

 

[dgc333]

Wider gap results in lower dwell readings. Dwell is the angular measurement of how long the points stay closed.