[Purdy Swoft]

I agree with John LaVoy, I run 5.9 on most of mine, it is like the difference in day and night. Creeping and lugging the engine in higher gears will do more damage than anything. Makeing corner turns at low speed and making it chick ah lunk around the corner in high gear will beat the babbit out. Changing to a higher gear ratio adds to the risk of lugging. You've got to know how to keep the momentum up and avoid lugging. If it begins to lug, ping and buck, if you are going too fast to down shift, retard the spark just enough to cushion out the ping and buck.I set my timing the same on all of mine, stock or higher compression. When the timing pin drops in place I lock the points cam down with the trailing edge of the rotor tip pointing at the number one contact in the dist. cap with NO clockwise back lash . In other words, if you want the timing right, all of the back lash must be in the counter clockwise direction. I set my points at .022 and feel that this is important. I run 3.78 gears and have no problems with lugging. I crank the engine with the spark retarded and pull the lever down quickly when the engine cranks. I drive at speed with the spark fully advanced . I've run my model A's this way for over 50 years with no problems. If its not lugging I've never had a problem running at full advance. I don't retard the spark going down hill, I use to do that as a kid to make it pop while decellerating. After cranking the engine I don't mess with the spark much unless I'm driving at very low speed as on trails. Creeping isn't really being easy on the engine. Straining the engine at low speed in high gear will ruin any engine.