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Just now leaving Saigon for a 3 day stay in Bangkok, then home. Saw a lot in Vietnam. Saw Hanoi Hilton but all the American cells were tore down. They talked mostly about the French occupation and little about our soldiers incarceration There were propaganda pictures of happy soldiers getting physicals, playing volleyball and basketball. Saigon we saw the tunnels the North Vietnam soldiers used and the various traps they used to injure US soldiers. Was very interesting, and gave me a new appreciation for those that came and served. Also saw the killing fields of Penhm Pehm. Walked away thinking how can people be so cruel to each other..

I originally had 3 air ride struts that the local Buick dealer found by using the GM locating service. The first two I got scalded on, but the dealer gave me a better price on the last one when I told himy friend was a mechanic at the dealership. I sold the first two to a guy in Illinois which is why I have this one left. I will sell the GM air strut and a Monroe 71966 for $125.00 plus freight. PM me if interested. East Coast Reatta is selling them for $500.00 a pair plus freight. Offer is open to anyone else as well.

I sucked all the gas out of the tank through my fuel pressure gauge, to eliminate the possibility of old gas or water contamination, and replaced it with non-ethanol. They say it can be stored longer than the ethanol blends before it goes bad, which is good since I don't drive too much.

There is no recommended minimum or maximum number, but it is normal to register a couple hundred counts from the noise created while starting. I would think that more or less cranking time would change the averages any particular engine will see. That 0-255 number in the diagnostics is a function of the range of the counter in binary terms. It is not a range in and of itself. I am not computer savvy enough to explain better than that. The figures you are seeing are normal. The running spark advance is contained in a grid containing hundreds of individual cells. Each cell is an individual unit not related to the others around it. The grid, or table, has rpm for the vertical axis and a figure called LV8 for the horizontal axis. LV8 is a figure created by the programming using multiple inputs that estimate engine load. It is absolutely normal operation as you described above. Spark angle is actually spark retard and is the amount subtracted from the normal spark advance when knock is encountered. Some knock is fleeting and expected and even though some knock counts might show up, it isn't enough to trigger a reduction in timing. I don't know what graphs that are presented online, but be certain they represent readings for a 35-year-old engine management system. Our ECM is light years from modern systems in computing speed and capacity. For example, modern systems use heated O2 sensors to maintain sensor operation when the engine is cool and/or the exhaust cools off like from prolonged idling. Our simple inexpensive one wire O2 sensor generates a small voltage that adds or subtracts from the reference voltage the ECM creates and it must have exhaust heat to make it operate. With increased rpm comes greater exhaust heat. The center point is somewhere in the .40v-.50v range and represents a lambda of 1.0, or stoichiometric. If the ED07 voltage indicates above the center point it is rich, if below, it is lean. It constantly swings between rich and lean, with the crossover seen in cross counts. The ECM does learn and that is why the integrator and block learn figures change over time. Even changing from 10% ethanol, to 15% or zero percent will require the system to make adjustments. Al gasoline is not created equal. If the battery is disconnected, all of the adjustments built up over time in the ECM, are reset back to a starting point that is hard wired into the system. It is safe for the engine to operate but it is not running at it's optimum until the ECM has relearned the proper adjustments and it takes a little time for that to happen while driving, not just idling.