Was Googling radiators and came across an old thread. Krazy Comet talked about air being trapped in the head. He also mentioned his way of filling the cooling system so it will not have air in it. Im going to pull it up on ramps tomorrow and try it, I bet thats part of my problem. Still want a new rad though, but this might get me through the tuning stages Im about to do. Thanks Krazy Comet!
Good day today....I tried the process for filling the coolant that Krazy Comet mentioned in another thread and coolant just spewed out when I pulled the heater hose. I topped it off and drove it down the road for the first time. Didn't run great, but I haven't done any tuning yet. Temp started climbing when I got back. (I only went a mile up the road) So I moved to plan B, change out my fan. I took a pic but it didn't come out. The fan I was running was NOT the same as the original fan for this motor. They look the same but the one is larger than the other. DOH! I ended up using a five bladed fan from a 76 250 AC car. It's the car that I got my shroud from. Drove up and down the road for about an hour trying to tune this thing. Temp stayed at 175... As for tuning, it's getting better but still not there. How hard can this be? I have a pertronix unit, so it's just one fuel mixture screw and timing. I used a timing light and set the timing by that. Then I hooked up my vacuum gauge and I was only pulling 15 inches. I advanced the timing and richened up the fuel mixture, that got it up to 20 but the timing was too far advanced and I had a ping. I bumped the timing back a little. Oh, I also pulled the vacuum advance off the carb and put it on the manifold. It seemed to help. I'm not sure where the timing is at this point, it's advanced but not sure how much. The mixture screw is turned out about 2 turns I think. It runs smooth and has good acceleration if Im easy on the throttle. If I give it too much it starts to bog down a little and feels like it's running a little rough. I can keep pushing and it will begin to pull better but you can tell it's not right. I'm not so sure I'm going to keep this carb. I might put my old one on just to see if there is any noticeable difference. I see a new carb in my future since I don't need a radiator right away.
I did a 170 to a 250 swap years ago. (what a difference!) I used a carb that was intended for a 250 with an EGR. I blocked off the EGR. The car ran very lean and hot. Do you know where your carb came from? You might want to look into the jet size. Micah
My egr is blocked also. I lost the tag that was on ithe carb but Im certain its not a Maverick. I did some reading on classicinlines.com and they suggest ditching the factory ignition for a duraspark. What ignition are you running with yours?
You've got the Pertronix...so you are all set. You need to ditch the EGR. I removed ALL of it on my 1976 4-door. Leaving some of it on there.....not hooked up, or plugged.....does no good.
I ran that carb for only a short time. It always ran lean and ended up roasting my valve guides. I was running headers too. So that probably made it run even leaner. I switched to a Weber DGAV and had a Mallory electronic conversion. Yanked that engine a few months ago. Micah
Im getting burnt out. I would let it sit a while but not only do I not have time, but it's not in my nature. Am feeling the pressure of having this car put back together, clean and reliable by June 1st. I've been reading, bugging friends and pondering what I need to do to get his car to run smooth and powerful. Like I said before, my only adjustments are timing and fuel mixture, how hard can that be? I'm not a fan of using old parts, mechanical parts that is. I know I don't have a correct carb and rebuilding the one that was on it isn't gonna cut it. For me to diagnose, I need to know what I have, to eliminate possible causes. I put on my old carb from my 200 this afternoon. I know that carb, how long I've had it and how it operates. The engine seems to be a little smoother but it was raining today so I couldn't drive it. I also played with the timing a little too. It was set at 10 degrees btdc with direct manifold advance. I ended up right back there when it was all said and done. Sure does idle rough I think. Maybe Im just used to the 200. When I shift into gear the car shakes an awful lot. Doesn't help that the exhaust is banging on the floor and leaking. I will get that squared away in a few weeks. I was going to repair some rust in the left fender and repaint under the hood since it was all off the car. I bailed on that plan and started putting the body back together. I will just have to pick at it a little here and a little there while I have time. The front end is sitting a little lower than I wanted it, but I like how the tire fills up the wheel well now. I think the plan is going to be to lower the rear an inch, maybe 2 and it will be good to go. I was ok with the way it rode yesterday, but I just added a few hundred pounds to the nose that may affect it now. Here are a couple pics of the days work. This is how the spring and control arm look. This is with the cover on. Looks like I have about 2 and a half inches before I hit the bump stop. Here is how it sits with most of the body back on. All thats missing is the hood and grill.
Hi Don. I have only peeked in on occasion and noticed the last couple pages of tuning issues you're having here. Couple of helpful hints I'd like to throw your way here if you'll have them. If you got the idle vacuum up to 18"?.. that's an optimum timing figure that you'll want to replicate any way you can. If you have the mixture screws out 2 full turns?.. the engine is running rick and likely loading up a bit at idle which may be causing your rough running situation. Also very likely that the heavier initial timing that gave you those better 18" readings was allowing too much timing when revved under load while combined with the mechanical advance rate built into that disty. Keep in mind that when you add heavier initial timing(and you should try like hell to keep it higher than stock because it helps all around).. and/or vac advance from full vacuum port.. the mechanical curve will need to be pulled back on too. Also best to pull back some of the vac advance pots contribution via the adjustable advance pots allen wrench adjustment. The nice thing about many of the old factory Ford stuff is that they made the pots adjustable without the need to replace it with an aftermarket unit to gain said adjustability. If yours doesn't have an allen adjustment by chance?.. you can easily find one in another disty that will swap over to this one. For your restoration level.. it may be best to just buy a new adjustable one to have piece of mind that the rubber diaphragm is in good shape without any potential cracking of the old rubber over shorter timeframes. It's been far too long since I've worked on a straight 6 like yours but I have worked on many.. and would be looking at running around 12-14 degrees initial advance.. with another 24-28 mechanical sweep.. then supplemented with around 10 degrees of vac advance from a full manifold source. So, let's say.. 14 initial setting.. +24 centrifugal in at around 3,000rpm.. +10 vac advance for a total of 38 at WOT and 48 at part throttle cruise. That will get your mixture screws adjusted in much further and clean up the idle.
I havent been part of this forum as long as many of you, but I have read a lot of your comments in this area. I was kind of hoping you would chime in. The only problem is that a lot of what you said is over my head. I would love to learn more about what you are trying to relay to me. Maybe we can get together on the phone when you a few minutes to school me. Thank you for your help, I appreciate it.
The terminology gets confusing at times.. but if you're doing the work that you're doing here.. it won't be all that difficult at all. I will also look for a few helpful disty tuning links to give you a better overview and some perspective on what you'll be needing to do. PM me and we can work something out schedule-wise.
I was hunting around last night for info that may give you better overviews and found these to help accelerate your learning curve. I also liked this response on another forum as it fits your scenario quite well and saves me much time too. From here. http://www.fordmuscleforums.com/galaxie-pages/505175-initial-timing-whats-yours-2.html Someone queries the poster with And he replies with.. Here's the overview links I mentioned above. http://fordmuscle.com/archives/2000/03/timing/index.shtml http://www.fordmuscleforums.com/all-ford-techboard/468043-recurving-distributor.html Here's a picture of what you'll be up against should you decide to pursue it. PS. you should also be aware that when a disty has been set up to run the advance pot off of the ported/timed source.. you cannot simply swap over to the full manifold port without some type of consequences occurring.. good or bad. I'm not positive here(would be best to ask other experts here or refer to the shop manual).. but IIRC the factory setup on your car was running off the ported/timed source rather than a full manifold source and some additional tuning would likely be required to swap it over. Just thought that I'd mention that too. PSPS. IMO, that Pertronix setup is more than adequate so long as everything is correct and operational. Regardless of what you end up with here.. the timing curve will need to be modified for best overall result and fuel economy.
