Nice job on the timing.

 

I turned the cam yesterday and the timing marks aligned just like in Ross's picture.

Had my friend come by after work today while I was gone. He was able to put everything back, but the radiator, pulleys and belts. He should be back on Sunday when we hope to fire up the engine.

 

This was only a test. Thats why I have been quiet like playing beat the
clock. Early on this thread you had the answer but didnt see it. Your
red flag was the high vac. on your finger in the plug hole. As I remember
in the late 60s a customer needing a water pump on a 64 Shelby real one
black gold stripes while doing he said may as well put a chain too. Just
to be sure check the book its a 289 -witness gear marks dot to dot. These
as a double pain getting the cover back on , all the coolant etc job done I
thought= it is a no go. Quick overveiw I got vac. at the tail pipe and exhaust
from the carb. what" this thing drove in here. Nothing in any book no
computors then just a telephone booth. The car being fairly new Im
probably the first guy doing this. Last resort after tearing it all down again
I had to call Shelby. Come to find out the marks are like your 6cly. on
a horizontal plane. That was a Shelby cam thing not a Ford thing. So
from then on, on whatever engine BEFORE taking apart I check to see
where the dots are even If it jumped time It will be fairly close either at
6'clock or 3'clock. One learns something every day. enjoy

 

Great news. Congrats Ilya, glad to hear you figured it out.

 

Started the truck today. Still need to play with the timing a little, but was able to get it to run for several seconds before it dies out. As soon as I step on the accelerator pedal to give it some gas, the engine stalls or backfires through the carb. We're now thinking that the carbs are the issue since the truck won't stay running. Has to do with fuel supply. This is what prompted the engine rebuild in the first place.

I have a few Holley 1904s and we're going to put the original set up back on, with one carb, to see if it'll run better. Then we'll know if the problem is in the dual carbs. I also want to get a second opinion on the rebuilt carbs. There's a guy on the IH forum that is really knowledgable with them. I'll contact him to see if he can help me or even look at the carbs for me.

 

Don't give up !!! You will have it running soon and it will be worth it.

 

Very cool that you got it up and running. Yes, I would say its a fuel issue. It sounds like its going really lean when you try to accelerate. Without the truck running look down in the carbs and see if you get a decent squirt of fuel when you open the throttle. Maybe its something as simple as the accelerator pumps are all dried out and not working

Bobby

 

A comment made a long time ago was that with dual carbs, you can't use the stock Load-A-Matic distributor. You won't get the correct vacuum advance. The vacuum signal from either of the carbs on a dual system is going to be wrong, and you have them plumbed together as I recall, which may not help with the carb situation either. You could try hooking the vac advance line from the distributor to manifold vacuum.

 

Well... It starts, so you're on the right track!!!
Do you need a single carb manifold?

What was the name of that fuel systems shop that you went to???

 

Do not hook the distributor advance up to manifold vacuum! If you have a stock cam, the stock distributor can be made to work. You have less ported vacuum since you have multiple carbs so you need less spring pressure in the distributor. The posts the springs hook to in the distributor are actually adjustable. If they are not frozen they rotate on an eccentric. Adjust these to make the springs as short as you can and see if you get enough advance. If you still need more advance you will need to get a distributor spring kit.

 

38, I assume you know who JWL is? He insists that flatheads perform better on manifold vacuum. He's done dyno tests to prove it, admittedly not on stock engines. (And this isn't a flathead, but he insists it is true even for SBC's) At any rate it would give more than enough advance to get it on the road. Best bet is to toss the LoadAMatic and get a Bubba or MSD distributor.

 

I agree with 38 coupe, I would not recommend using manifold vacuum. I'm not sure what "perform better" means and I don't know how many modifications JWL has done to those engines are but I'll bet the drivability s_cks if they are anywhere close to Henry's original design. The purpose of using a carb port is to get the advance to match the throttle position as closely as possible. That is why the other side of the port comes out in a slot right by the throttle plates. I tried a couple things on my stock V-8 and finally went with a new vacuum advance, new coil and a PerTronix 1283 Ignitor. I can't believe how small the PerTronix module is but new points and condenser would probably be just as good on a stock engine. I just liked the PerTronix technology.

I do not recommend that you turn any of the eccentric posts for the mechanical advance without a Sun distributor machine. Better that you clean up the inside of the distributor. See if there is any rust or crud on the springs. If so take them off and clean them up with a brass brush. Also make sure that the advance plate moves freely.

Finally when you set the timing it must be at 500 RPM with the vacuum advance disconnected. I was surprised to see the difference after I had everything cleaned-up, freed-up and the new parts installed.

OK . . . that is my 2 cents on the subject.

 

Thanks for the additional advice and diagram. I don't think that it's the vacuum advance because the truck did run fine for a few months hooked up to the stock distributor.

Today, we were able to run the engine longer with the throttle continuously open on both carbs, but then it still didn't run right. We put on the stock intake and single carb (different than the ones I had rebuilt) and were getting the same result.

I called a fellow EFV8 club member, who also happened to be the ex-national president of the club and from whom I bought this engine and other F1 parts. He told me that the symptoms sound like either a bad vacuum advance, condenser or both. He told us how to check the vacuum advance and it looked to be working fine. I then went to the store to get a new condenser, but it wasn't in stock. It'll be in tomorrow. We'll change out the condenser tomorrow and will try to start again. If this still doesn't fix the problem, then I'll really throw in the towel. I'll call him back to see if he'd be willing to take on repair project.

I'd really like to replace all of the ignition components with Pertronix or another similar brand, but as far as I know, no one makes them for 6v application for this engine. I'll call Pertronix tomorrow to confirm availability of their 6v iginition parts.

 

Dan,

Thanks for the offer, but I have a few of the stock intake manifolds. I'll say it again. The name of the shop was Ace Fuel Systems.

 

Hang in there Ilya. It'll work out.