Excellent! Unfortunately, I don't have time to do much today as the wife and I have plans, but those pics are great! I have taken some more pics and will put them up in the gallery to maybe answer some of your questions.

One thing that bothers me is when I went out to take these pictures a few minutes ago, there was gas inside the carb and around the base of it. I took some pics, so you will see what I am talking about. I remember yesterday having the thing run rough when I switched the vacuum line that seemingly went nowhere to the EGR (assuming that is what it really is). I switched it to that configuration yesterday before calling it quits for the day and now there is gas all over the place. I wonder if that had something to do with it.

I really appreciate the help, as this is a completely new experience for me. I have an '89 Isuzu Trooper with 364,000 miles that I am used to working on, but this is a new animal altogether. On that thing, I can do a lot of stuff myself, so I am hoping this one will be a little easier to work on.

 

The carb you have is a Holley, and it's a very common carb that's easy to work on. In the situation you have now, I would work on this thing is stages.

1. Don't worry about the emissions stuff right now. It's all messed up, and I am still thinking it's not original. If you can make sure what you are supposed to have, and that someone has converted this from computer control to a regular carb, I would just remove all the vacuum lines on the engine, since none of it's going to be correct, and it can cause more problems that you don't need.

2. Try to see what dist you have, and if it has the silver can sticking out with a vacuum line going to it. If it doesn't have the vacuum advance can on it, then you are going to have to get a new distributor for it, since your timing is locked and not being controlled by the computer. But, you can still do this later, after you figure out what you have, and get some of the more important stuff fixed.

 

Whew! Remove ALL vacuum lines? I may wait to do that until I feel a little more comfortable with this thing!

I can almost guarantee it has had the computer removed, as this thing looks like it was stripped and stuck back together. I DO have tons of vacuum lines going to all kinds of valves, with junctions and caps galore. I would love to remove them all and just have a plain 'ol engine, which sounds like what you are suggesting.

I really appreciate all of the help and I am sure I will be asking for more as I work on this thing in the coming weeks.

 

Well, it POURED rain here yesterday, so I wasn't able to do anything to the truck. Probably won't be until Friday before I can do anything to it.

A couple of questions. First, when you say remove all vacuum lines from the engine, are you suggesting removing all vacuum lines or just those connected to something on the engine itself? I assume the latter since the tranny modulator I just replaced is dependant on the vacuum system.

Also, RE: the distributor issue, where is this "can" located? There is a lot of stuff all around the distributor cap and seeing under and around it is virtually impossible without removing the cap. I assume it is under it, as I can't see anything and there really isn't anywhere else for it to be.

I would love to remove the air conditioning compressor and anything else like that I am not using. Actually, the A/C compressor isn't even hooked up and there is no belt attached to it. There are some lines connected to it, but I may just take the whole mess off and be done with it.

Thanks for all the help!

 

The "can" he was referring to is not under the dist. cap, but comes out the side of dist. just below the dist cap. It is aluminum colored with a place for a vacuum line.

I wouldn't mess with ac at this time if the belt is removed, it isn't even in the picture at this point.

 

I think my suspicions are correct. The can on the side of the dist is very large and obvious, and points out toward the front. If you are having that hard a time seeing it, I bet you don't have it.

You are correct, the statement I made about removing "all" vacuum lines is misleading. You need;

1. Vacuum line to the brake booster
2. Vacuum line to the firewall tree which should cover the HVAC controls, auto tranny.
3. Vacuum line to the PCV valve

Looking at the pictures, you have many lines going nowhere, and lots of thermal sensors that are not being used. What I am thinking, is your truck had a computer, now it doesn't, so you are pretty much sunk as far as getting any of this stuff to work. The engine from the factory is tuned as a system, and all this stuff works together, including the computer, carb, and all the sensors and emissions stuff.

Since someone has converted part of the system, you would be better off to ditch the whole mess, and set the engine up as if it was built in the early 70's. So you will have vacuum lines for the important controls listed above for the tranny and heating, the brakes, and the PCV system, which keeps the engine oil clean.

Once you get confident, and clean up some of the lines, and possibly get the carb rebuilt(fuel laying around the carb) and get it running fairly decent, then you can tackle getting the correct distributor, and the correct module, and wiring it all in. Right now your timing is locked, and you are not getting the power and fuel mileage out of the engine with this dist, since it has no way of advancing the timing itself.

 

OK, that makes sense. Yes, these vacuum lines are aggravating, as there are more on this thing than my Trooper!

Anyway, I know the carb needs rebuilding and I think I have a guy that can do it if I don't feel up to the challenge. Since this is a "beat around town" vehicle, mileage isn't an issue. It will be used to haul stuff around and for hunting/fishing trips locally. I doubt she will be driven more than 50 miles from home ever again.

For now, I will leave all alone and worry about getting the crap out of my way. I have NO problem running a simpler engine at all!

Thanks again for all of the help!

 

Ever have one of those "head-slapping" moments? It dawned on me yesterday that the vacuum pump is not operational at all! I could be wrong, but see if I am right here:



Notice in the picture that there is NO belt attached here. I have been crawling over this trying to get vacuum lines working properly when I noticed this yesterday. After I slapped my head, I realized WHY there was nothing changing when I attached and removed vacuum lines. Am I wrong here? Is there another vacuum system I am missing?

 

yep thats the a/c compresor dont know about the pump srry

 

Actually, I KNEW that was the A/C compressor, just poking fun at my earlier brain-fart!

 

That's not a vacuum pump. It is the air pump which is part of the emissions system. It is part of the egr valve(ExhaustGasRecirculator). Your engine supplies the vacuum thru the intake manifold when engine is running and sucking in air. That's why a vacuum system is closed system and messes up the eng running when you have a leak.

 

Okey dokey! Well, it isn't hooked up at all. Looks like the belt was removed quite some time ago. Frankly, I would love to just take it off as well as the compressor, but that is a task for another day.

Don't really know what the difference is, but she ran great tonight when the boys and I went to Scouts. I pulled the line that went "nowhere" to the EGR off (from the earlier pics) and forgot to hook it back up, so maybe that was it. Who knows, but she shifted great, ran great and had plenty of power, so I am thinking my vacuum system is really messed up. I am also thinking it is going to take someone with more knowledge than me to get that mess right or off, whichever the case may be!

Thanks for the help!

 

It all depends on the emissions laws as to getting away "without" the Ford A.I.R pump. Even if your vehicle is emissions exempt (in some areas) some inspections stations might not pass the truck on a visual inspection.

Engine vacuum is normally ported (tapped) from the intake manifold near the base of the carburetor or middle of lower intake if fuel injected. Typically on carburetor engines the upper port on the carburetor controls the vacuum advance on the distributor.

I can see from the picture that the vacuum coming from the carburetor going to the distributor has a tee. One side of the tee appears to have a tire valve stem cap on it. Take that tee out and replace it with a straight connector.

The vacuum hoses going from the back of the engine to the branch on the firewall all appear to be new. One is the supply from the carburetor, one goes to the transmission, one goes to the HVAC. Those look good.

There should be a large black metal pipe at the rear of the engine which snakes down then back up to your brake booster. Ensure that is connected and not leaking.

The EGR manifold plate is located below the carburetor and requires vacuum to open and close the exhaust recirculation passage. The valve opens to allow recirculation of exhaust gas below the base of the carburetor when the engine is cold then gradually closes as the engine operating temperture reaches normal. This is done by the thermal vacuum control valve located near the front of the engine on the water jacket of the intake. That device has one vacuum supply and one or more thermal controlled ports.

You must have vacuum for:
=====================
Power Brakes
Automatic Transmission
Distributor Advance
HVAC damper control
Cruise Control

The first three items are necessary, the last two you can live without for a while anyway.

 

Thanks for the comments. Yes, that line from the carb to the distributor does have a "T", as do a lot of the vacuum lines. Ther is also a looped line that is crimped closed as someone pointed out earlier. Don't know what the purpose for doing that was, but it was done KNOWING it would crimp. I had planned on replacing a lot of those lines to do away with some of the mess.

As for the brake booster, you can see the large line coming from it, but it runs to an area near the distributor, but I cannot see exactly where it goes from there because the A/C compressor is in the way. When I get some time, I plan on moving the stuff out of the way and seeing what is going on there.

The lines on the firewall ARE new. I replaced them last week and that seems to have helped matters a lot.

As I mentioned above, yesterday I pulled the lines from the EGR at the back of the carb. Truck ran better, shifted better and had more power. Don't know why, but it did. Perhaps that was sucking air from somewhere it didn't need to be. I have seen two different lines attached to it. One comes from a valve near the front that seems to be screwed into the intake manifold. The other came from the breather. The breather line was the one attached, but the other line seemed to be the one that should go there. Now, neither are attached and it runs better than it has before.

Also, there are two threaded holes on opposite side of the intake manifold in the back, near the firewall. Neither has anything in them. Is there supposed to be something there?

As of right now, I am inclined to remove the vacuum lines from everything except the critical stuff mentioned in the previous posts. When I get to that point, I will need some help. All you guys have posted thus far has been great and I REALLY appreciate it!

 

It does seem that Littlejon has EEC-IV/TFI ignition, because I do not see the vacuum advance can on his distributor. From looking at his last pic, I find it strange that his truck has a Duraspark II can type coil instead of the TFI E-coil that is found on computer controlled engines.



Littlejon, look on your driver's side inner fender. Do you see a big square silver box with two plug connectors running out of it attached to the fender? If you have one, you can't miss it.


I am curious as to the three vacuum lines that are attached to the firewall, the ones that Littlejon replaced. What, exactly, do these lines go to?



From left to right, the first goes to ___? The middle goes to ___? The Third goes to __?