MTFCA Forum

Dear friends, My nearly overwhelming feeling of ineptness is only surpassed by my great joy and relief. I can report I have found and corrected the"rattle" that has plagued me for so many months. I am truly in your debt for the countless thoughts and suggestions you folks have offered me on possible causes and remedies. The critical factor I never gave you is I am running a Reeder high compression aluminum head. The rattle I've experienced is excessively loud "knock" from low octane regular gasoline. I can't explain why the noise ended when I shorted out #3 but with a fill up of 91 octane and a little reduction in spark advance the cursed rattle has stopped. My '23 touring has always run very well but it now sounds just like a Model T should with no additional "wrenchin'" needed. Thank you again for all your thoughts, comments and suggestions.

Very glad you beat this.
The missing HC head info would have been useful, as high compression heads make spark advance and pinging an "upfront" issue. MUCH more sensitive to barking at you if advance is off a bit on the "advanced" side of things. #3 may have just a bit more compression than the others and was the one talking to you because of that.

Good for you and your persistence.

My experience with the low Reeder head was similar to yours. I found that even with high octane gas, I had a very narrow range of spark positions between so retarded that I lost performance, and the presence of the 'Reeder rattle'

Ron Dupree