Halfafish came by today and we recurved his distributor... we took the time to document how to disassemble and reassemble the distributor so a future article will be coming so other users will know how to work on it... Keep an eye on him, he makes a really mean burger.... (that was probably THE juiciest burger I have ever had... and I didn't have to eat dinner, I was still full.... Thanks Again Zach!)





After he took off in the afternoon, I pulled the engine off the stand and mated the Lockup 904 to the engine and dropped it in the car....

Tomorrow I will get the cross member in, lines connected, and hopefully get the driveline sized up.


Getting pretty close now that all the major assemblies are in place....just details....

Was a little sore this morning... took a little while to get motivated...

Crossmember installed, Cooler lines connected at the tranny, E brake cable 90% installed (need to tighten).

Aspen 4 door with an 8 1/4" rear requires a 52" driveshaft.... I thought I had an A-body drive shaft that was close... both are 51" for the 108" WB and 7 1/4" rear end.... so I will either shorten the Aspen driveline 1.5" (would prefer to keep it in case we need to swap the 7 1/4 rear back under the car in an emergency)....

I also noticed that the front end sits a little low, so when I'm back under the car I will crank the T-bar adjustment up another 3/4 turn...

Just a bunch of little things left to button up now...

So Far So Good....

Tranny cooler lines connected, shift linkage hooked up, fan installed, fuel line to pump replaced radiator in, power steering and pump installed, put 4 qts into the trans... no coolant leaks, no tranny leaks...

Next up on the list:

Distributor
Valve Cover/Breather/PCV
Coil
Trans pigtail
Carburator and linkage
Kickdown
Exhaust Header Pipes
Spark Plugs
Oil and Filter

Need to headscratch the fitting for the Power Brake Booster on the Offy Manifold....

Almost there...

Does the Offy have a port where the EGR goes on stock intakes? If not, carb spacers often have a port for power brakes.

Yes it has a bung with a plug on the #6 runner and at the EGR location... just have to stop by my local parts store to see what fits a 3/8" hose and those threads....
Yep, I have one of those since the "Ford" only carbs do not have a PCV nipple in their baseplate some models used a spacer with the 3/8" barb fitting....(I bought it to use a Holley 0-1848 on a previous build...)

Water Pump Pulley spacers showed up, 3/16" offset needed....



Alternator mounted and wired, coil bracket relocated, coil installed and wired, manifold plate installed and studs installed...

Holley marinading nicely in "the dip"....

Should have it rebuilt and mounted by this weekend and figure out the kickdown and go fast cable.

Driveline will be ready Monday afternoon....

Getting closer....

Holley cleaned up, and refurbished.... it was an old one, so I replaced the bowl screws, and the slotted choke thermostat bolts....installed a PV blowout valve....

Holley is now calibrated for mileage... #52 primary, #53 secondary, Orange Acc cam on #1, Black secondary spring, installed a dual stage PV rated at 12.5 first stage, 6.5 second stage....

Installed the dutra dual headers pipes using Remflex #6006 gaskets.

Will have to nudge the auto trans cooler lines over a bit since they are touching the front dutra header pipe....

New Pie Tin fits perfectly....

Bent up a new line from the fuel pump to just short of the carb, plenty of room for a fuel filter.

Next up...

Carb bracket
Accelerator cable
Return Spring
Kickdown cable

Distributor
Rotor/Cap/Wires
Spark Plugs

Power Brake Booster connection

Driveline when it's finished early next week...

Finish the exhaust system.

Fire and run the engine, set the valvelash....


Almost there.... not to bad for tearing down the car and refurbishing it on my limited schedule over 2 months....



Last items on the list: electrical and light check, add new stereo, may add a tach, and vacuum gauge to finish dialling it in better....

Rob are you going to make it to Woodburn on the 24-25 Oldies meet?

Richard

_________________
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

That is the plan....!!!! I would like to run /6 on Saturday, but won't be able to stay if there is an Inliners on Sunday, since I get Spencer for his visitation that day.

Lots of progress today, by this week it should be buttoned up, and have to get it in for an alignment...

I have the following left to be driveable:

Driveline- should have tomorrow
Kickdown linkage- have in hand just need to install and adjust
Finish exhaust- Just need to install and hang.
Install fitting for Brake Booster- Have to get at store tomorrow.
Tweak the little things hitting the exhaust.

Electrical Check.

Alignment.


Optional for later: Vacuum and AF gauge, Swap out 8 Track for Stereo.

Driveline is installed and sized perfectly.
Kickdown is installed and adjusted about as good as it gets...(full throttle = full kickdown)

Exhaust needs 2 -10" splice pieces (which I have, just need to expand the ends install, clamp, and hang the assembly), got to complain about how the gas tank sits in the F-body, not as narrow and symmetric

Tomorrow should have the correct oil filter (1806) since the pump installed doesn't have a standpipe.

If all goes well, I should be able to fire the engine tomorrow, make sure the transmission fluid is topped up, and check the lights and electrical.

If all goes well, off to get an alignment by the end of the week... shake down late next week, if nothing falls off the car, be at Woodburn the 24th...

I'm not too happy about the driver's side exhaust pipe... there just isn't a path for it like the passenger side to the bumper.... so I temped both pipes in and will have to have a new set bent as the exit must be to the outside of the leaf springs unlike the A-body... that and everywhere I have a clamp it's leaking... so that needs to be dealt with anyway...


Have a bunch of little things I need to button up...

Electrical Check shows everything works except the drivers side marker light, and I just need to get my meaty fist in there to replace that 168 bulb...
Brake warning light stays on, so I need to make sure that the plug hasn't come off the prop block...

Went to roll it over and found I had a leak in the heater hose at the fire wall... cut 1" off it and reinstalled, leak fixed...


After a few times pouring a little gas down the bore it finally fired up... but sounded "choppy"... pulled the valve cover and loosened the lash about 1/4 turn each rocker....

Fired it up again and the sound was still choppy and the vacuum was low... stopped, checked the distributor, it was off a bit....

Fired it up and got it to fast idle for a length of time....killed it when I pulled the throttle lever back... will have to pull the front bowl, the acc pump isn't shooting.... ?!??!?!

Let is run for a while so I could check the fluids... topped up the power steering, and put 2 more quarts into the tranny, then ran it in R12D....
Fluid level was fine... tires motivate in the right direction (yes I don't trust the car with the tires on the ground while checking for function...love those jackstands).

Have a couple other issues to look at the engine rpm drop between P or N and R is about 800 rpm... where as the drop from same to Drive is about 4-500 rpm... Thought that was a little odd...

I will need to throw a timing light on it and check a few more things... the mill wants to idle at 1300 rpm... which is too much, it also wants more advance.... currently the idle is choppy which isn't quite right for the 819 cam unless the LSA is really narrow compared to the stock grind.... my vacc. reading is about 12" at 1300, is 17" at 1800, and about 8" in gear (so something isn't quite right here... this cam should have better numbers than that... I may have to recheck my cam phasing... the advance on the centerline might be too much for the cam....)

The last item to look at is the brakes... I bled them, but no matter what I had some little air bubbles in the bleeder (a bit finer than soda pop bubbles)... during warm up I tested the brakes and they function and stop the wheels OK but the pedal is (like that other recent topic)... spongy... and the travel before the pedal takes hold is a couple inches further that I think is right....

I guess I will see what happens tomorrow.....

.......just the normal insurmountable difficulties.

You build a whole car pretty fast Senor Idiota.....

_________________
Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

Took a break to head scratch a bit, last night spent quite a few hours pulling the front end out of the engine and rephased the cam...

It's all together, but I'm thinking something is up with this cam grind...

It runs but is really cranky/"lopey"... It wants to warm idle at 1300 rpm, gets cranky at 1100 rpm, and even at 1300 rpm, if I jack it from N to D it kills the engine....

After rephasing the cam I was at a verrrry lumpy 15-17" of vacuum... and lots of loose valve train noise.

Once warmed up I did the valve lash according to the cam specs and even left it about .002 loose because I think the lash is too tight at .012... after the valve lash the vacuum at 1300 rpm idle went from the nice 15-17' to 12-13"....

I checked for vacc leaks and found two that got corrected with a little applied torque but that didn't improve the idle quality or vacc reading....

Checking with the dial indicator the intake events are spot on for the grind but the exhaust events indicate a tighter LSA which means more overlap which may be the reason the cam is not happy, it's a short cam with too much overlap....

Given what I know, it looks like the June 24th race is out for me, and will set sights on the August Race...

I'm going to take a look at the Comp 264 I got from another user, since I have driven that build and grind and know that has a much smoother idle and less overlap... which would be better in the long run for the intent of the car....

Debating an in car cam change, or pulling the engine outright.... since it has a BL head I have to pull the head anyway to change the cam/lifters....

I think a G&T is in order....

What LSA did you come up with?


What are the cam specs?

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

The normal grind for this cam is (.050 spec)

219/219 110 LSA .437 lift at 1.5 .010/.012 lash... which close approximates a Comp 264 from OCG....

that being said... what it calcs to is closer to

220/219 105LSA .437 lift at 1.5 and is reallly salty at .013 lash... is much happier at .020 lash... but you can hear the pushrods rattle at that lash result....

I know that Rick Covalt had one of these at 108 LSA I have yet to see a post from him really complaining about it.... doing the DCR calc shows it to be at 8.3:1 which should be OK... but again... it's not happy....

Currently the cam is set at 100 deg intake centerline as I don't have a bushing to set at 102 for optimum performance... but even at that 105 LSA the overlap event is not happy with only 9.4:1 SCR....

This is one of those times I wish I still had my Erson motor... that was a smooth running torquey SOB.....it'd be perfect for this car....

By Sunday I will figure out the final solution for this stick swap....

I am eyeballing the 11:1 motor on the stand that was to serve as the recipient of the Wolverine Juice Cam I got from Dennis back when.... but I'd need a manual tranny or a high stall convertor and some 904 beef ups to make that happen.....