My Other Ride's A V8 Too

[Immortality]

So we'll see this at the Beach Hop next year?

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Good to see you have your priorities in order. That is one very tidy looking car from the outside and from underneath. What needs doing to it?

Everything I look at, it seems. It kept cutting out while getting it onto the trailer down in Auckland, but it had been in a container for six months and the petrol gauge hardly moved so it was almost dry and stale petrol. I put $40 of 95 octane in the tank while it was on the trailer on the way back home but it wouldn't start and the electric fuel pump was making a nasty racket and it only took a few attempts to flatten the battery. Pushed it off the trailer with neighbours help and left it on the road overnight. We're at the end of a cul-de-sac so it survived ok. I was up early with a torch pulling the battery to put it on charge back up at the house and return the hired ute and trailer.

Disconnected the outlet from the fuel pump and checked that fuel was coming through. It seemed restricted and pump was noisy as. Used vice grips and bog roll core to clamp inlet to prevent petrol dribbling through pump while I went an checked out pump online. Found out it is mounted wrong - should be vertically with the motor on top. I was able to remove the end plate and take it up to my garage to clean the internal wire mesh filter with petrol and a toothbrush. No solids or rust flakes but it was about 75% blocked with dried brown residue.

Reassembled, had lunch, hunted out the carburetor papers and read those until I started dozing. Hooked up the battery tested the pump. Better but noisy. Tested pump & fuel line to filter before carby (had to cut back perished fuel line at pump outlet). Good, still noisy. Tested pump & fuel line with filter to carby. Good, noisy. Checked rear fuel bowl window on carb with pump running. A bit low but petrol is in there. Gave it a go and fired up second crank.

I let it warm for a minute, a couple of squirts, she coughed and farted. YeeHaaa! Some neighbours heads hanging out windows now. Rev rev rev, it was banging a bit but I got the damn thing up into my garage firing on 5 or 6 cylinders. Time to pull the plugs and have a look at their state.

They were in excellent condition if a little carboned up. Cleaned up easily after soaking in petrol for a few hours and scrubbing with the same toothbrush. Added a set of imperial feeler guages to my shopping list, along with a set of 1/2" x 20tpi lock nuts, DOT 3 clutch/brake fluid, green coolant, and 5L Penrite Classic Medium 25W-70 Engine Oil (I think). Oh and a box of substitute replacement oil filters for CARQUEST 85515



Filter type: Full-Flow Lube Spin-on
Thread measurement: 3/4 16tpi
Outer diameter: 97 mm (Approx. 3.82")
Height: 131 mm (Approx. 5.16")

AC-Delco PF1A
AC-Delco PF2
Fram TG8A *
MOBIL M1-301
MOBIL MO1A
SHELL SH1
VALVOLINE L1

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Done

Thanks, man.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

So we'll see this at the Beach Hop next year?

I wish. No, I think it will be 2 to 3 years before I get it road legal. The way things are going I will be doing well if to have a shed around it before the new year.

 

[Immortality]

Those pumps are known for been noisy. Definitely need to be rubber mounted. The other issue is the dead head fuel system design. At idle or cruising situations the fuel pump is working against the carb needle/seat with fuel flow at almost nothing. They do have a little internal bypass but that fuel just ends up circulating inside the pump which creates a lot of heat. One way to help quieten them down is to create a return style fuel system so the pump has constant flow and the regulator controls the pressure. Even if you did it LS style with the regulator by the pump/tank it should be an improvement.

If you really get stuck, I think I still have a Holley blue pump in the garage, in the box new I'd be happy to let go for a reasonable price.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Those pumps are known for been noisy. Definitely need to be rubber mounted. The other issue is the dead head fuel system design. At idle or cruising situations the fuel pump is working against the carb needle/seat with fuel flow at almost nothing. They do have a little internal bypass but that fuel just ends up circulating inside the pump which creates a lot of heat. One way to help quieten them down is to create a return style fuel system so the pump has constant flow and the regulator controls the pressure. Even if you did it LS style with the regulator by the pump/tank it should be an improvement.

If you really get stuck, I think I still have a Holley blue pump in the garage, in the box new I'd be happy to let go for a reasonable price.

Thanks for the offer immortality, but at 9-14 PSI the Blue box pumps are too strong for my flathead, I believe. I'm not in any hurry and am going to have to a lot more researching but I'm already thinking this motor may be over-carbed. This one is a replacement, not the Holley that was on the engine when it was rebuilt 20 or so years ago. A standard single/double carb 221 - 239 cu. inch flathead with standard cam would require fuel pressure to be limited to about 2.5-3 lbs. This 4 barrel Holley is designed to run at 6.5 PSI. My pump runs at maximum 7 PSI so suits the carby. I may end up buying a Holley White Box 97 GPH Electric Fuel Pump with identical specifications that's almost 1/3 the price and the only difference is that is doesn't have repair kits available. Anyway, that's all for later. Mine has an aftermarket cam of some sort that I will have to look into and I will also have to get the sump off at some time and check whether it still has a 4" Mercury crankshaft in it and is 275.7 cu. inch or if it has a standard crank 3 3/4" and is only 258.5 cu. inch. One of the receipts I have for a new 42-48 crankshaft core (not ground) 3 3/4" stroke, which worries me as the car was advertised as being 275 cu. inches.

 

[Deuce]

Is the crank marked? Or do you plan on measuring 1/4 in difference (or 1/8" between rod journal and mains tunnel).

 

[UTE042_NZ]

There are *should* be discernible visible differences between American made Ford and Mercury crankshafts. From Mercury markings EAC, 1CM or 0CM, the width across the thickest counterweight (5 1/2" or 6"). Less reliably the different size "clean out" holes and plug sizes. Canadian Mercury cranks have a specific dimple in the back face of the rearward counterweight casting. The absolutely only sure way though is to remove a head and measure the travel of a piston. I'm confident that I could do the same from below by using my dial test indicator to find lowest point of travel on one conrod and then setting a datum point from there with a scribing block and measuring the travel to the top of the stroke. Easily within cooee of which quarter of an inch is nearest anyway. If I have to. But, again, that can all wait untill I have a shed. Next year. Priorities.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Weather too miserable for working outside on the retaining wall so spent this afternoon researching the cam I have in the Ford. It looks to be a street cam, a touch milder than 1/2 race and was purchased new from Red's Headers in California Ocober 2001. It's single pattern so I my hope of getting the flathead to do a nice lope at idle may be a pipe dream.

 

[UTE042_NZ]

Decided to check the distibutor cap and leads before replacing the spark plugs today. Found one of the leads had been out of contact for so long that the distributor cap terminal was tarnished. The inside of the cap was a abit gunky in places and there were black smears from someones hands all over the ouside of it. Polished the terminal with strips of 2000 wet & dry, cleaned the cap inside and out with meths then left it to flash off while I tightened up all the crimps each end of all the ignition leads. Then I gapped the new NGK B6L plugs to .030" and replaced the old Autolite 216s (which were all over the place, gapped from .024" to .032").

The old plugs were also a bit sooty again after I had cleaned them last time and the engine has only been run about 5 minutes, so next I drained both bowls on the carb and wound both of the floats down a full turn then had lunch so any spillage could evaporate away. Glad this thing has an electric pump. It is so easy to set the float levels and the glass windows in these modern 4-barrels mean you don't even have to spill a drop of fuel if you take your time, turning the pump off between adjustments.

I gave the idle screw a 1/4 turn for good luck, then climbed in and turned the key. It rumbled into life and purred along for a minute or three before beginning to stumble. I then had to keep giving the throttle a pump to keep it alive or it would start to drown on idle - too rich. Missing and farting if the throttle was held down, a strong smell of petrol and it was spitting plenty out the exhaust. Can't hold constant revs, shut it down.

Oh well, where are the idle mixture screws? One over here on this side of the the metering block by the throttle linkage. I guess there will be another on the other side and, to do this properly, I should buy a vacuum gauge and hose and tune for maximum vacuum. Oh, yea here's the other mixture screw and here's a a pipe to attach the vacuum gauge *turns the rubber cap.* Ahh phuck me, how about that!

I bet this bugger started running lean because of that vacuum leak and someone tried "fixing" it by screwing with the mixture.

Orders ToolPRO Fuel Pressure and Vacuum Test Kit @ SupercheapNZ for delivery from Whangarei.