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I have a 1987 FSB. It has the 351w. It isnt EFI it has the carb. I did away with all of the emission stuff. Plugged the thermactors and the egr port on the manifold. The only thing I need vaccum for is the brake booster, auto tranny, and heater controls.The distributor is a mechanical advance.Where do I plumb the vaccum from the intake to? does it go to the booster? Does it go to the carb. How should I plumb this thing for vaccum?

 

Plug any unused ports on the intake and carb.

If you are talking about those little colored plastic coolant vacuum switches then they don't even need to be plugged.

 

I am trying to figure out which ones need to be used. There isnt a vaccum line on the truck as of right now.

 

On most of them the brake booster comes off a vacuum port on the back of the intake manifold IIRC. The tranny and heater controls come off a plastic manifold that sits on the firewall. It has a line going to the back of the intake manifold, although it is much smaller than the booster, and then the tranny and heater controls come off of that.

But, there are only two types of vacuum - switched/ported and otherwise. IOW, the switched/ported comes from above the throttle plates and there is no vacuum until the throttle is opened. The "otherwise" has vacuum all the time. And, the ported vacuum has to come from the carb since it has to come from above the throttle. But, any vacuum from the intake manifold is "hot" all the time.

Something you might consider an exception to the above is if you use one of the vacuum switches that screw into the manifold to detect coolant temp, but it isn't a vacuum source, just a switch.

As for the reservoir, which you must have asked about in the PM 'cause I can't find it above, you only need it to keep the heater controls from changing due to lack of vacuum when you accelerate hard. There's a check valve that allows the engine to pull a vacuum on the reservoir, and then closes when the vacuum in the engine drops below that of the reservoir.

 

Great Gary, that tells me everything I need to know. The only thing I am not clear on is the auto tranny vacuum line. Since it has to do with shifting does it need to come from the carb or the intake manifold?

Thanks for the reply!

 

Intake as it needs vacuum at all times.

 

Cool , thanks again Gary. Does the cruise control servo or speed control servo as Ford calls it require vacuum? If so would it need it all the time as well?

 

Yes, the servo needs vacuum all the time. In fact, everything but the vacuum advance needs constant vacuum.

As said, the brake booster comes off the back of the intake manifold with a large hose, and IIRC, the cruise servo comes off there as well. And, so does the hose that goes up to the plastic manifold on the firewall, and it serves both the tranny and the heater controls.

 

OK, cool I have a vacuum tree that threads into the manifold and has 5 outputs and one is very big . I would assume the big one is for the booster and whichever is not necessary I will just cap it off. This was very informative Gary I appreciate all of your help.

I hope you got all of your vehicles back in action. The last time we talked you were having some issues.

I am stabbing the motor, tranny and transfer case into the Bronco tomorrow. Then comes the electrical wiring, coolant plumbing , vacuum plumbing and reassembly of the whole shebang.

I will use this and my experience to do a technical write up at Full Size Bronco Forums on the vacuum plumbing. There are plenty of people asking questions about stripping the emission stuff off of the motors and nobody reponding. When they do its a bunch of save the earth stuff and no direction on how to do it.

 

Sounds like you are getting along pretty well. I'm anxious to see it.

We put the Subie in the local "hospital" to free my time and hope to have it back late next week. And, we traded my ML320 in and got a 2011 Nissan Murano. So, that part is looking up. But, I bought another pickup, an '81 F150 4x4 with a bad clutch. Couldn't resist at the price. So, I still have lots to do.

 

Well at least you are going to have the Subie back in action. I hope they dont reach too far into your pocket on that one. I have a buddy thats a great wrench and does tricky head jobs and other stuff for $600.00 plus parts. Thats pretty reasonable compared to what I have heard some of the shops charging on OHC and DOHC engines. The new Nissan should be a good reliable ride for you guys. I have had a few and they were great. A lot of my friends drove them too in HS and all we did was try to tear them up daily. They were tough as boot leather.

The Bronco is coming along pretty well. I have been doing a lot of extra stuff. I cleared out the engine compartment and my buddy and I painted it all up back to the factory color. I power washed the underneath and put a fresh coat of undercoating on it. I think I have a couple of weeks before it is ready to start and drive. I will definately bring out to your place to show it off when its done.

The clutch on the 4x4 shouldnt be too hard to do. Are you keeping the 2wd trucks or are they on the chopping block? I want to find an extended cab 4x4 like a pre 1987 for my boy to start restoring. I have most of another 351W laying around the garage. It has the smog heads with it. Maybe he can get you to work your magic on them when you get it all figured out. Sounds like you are becoming quite the expert on opening them up and making them act right.

 

My wife is REALLY looking forward to getting her Subie back. The mechanic is charging $1000 plus parts, but I bought the gasket set and head bolts from Amazon for $250 as opposed to the $500 O'Reillys wanted for the same part #. So, assuming the heads haven't been damaged it'll cost ~$1500 all up.

And the Murano should add a lot of reliability to the fleet - something that having two 130,000 mile vehicles was lacking. And, we really like it to boot!

The white 82 Explorer in my sig will be sold. My brother has a guy that says he wants it and supposedly will pay $2k for it, although I'll have half that in the engine alone. Then there's everything else I put on it, so I lost money big time. But, I had some fun, and a lot of exasperation.

As for your son's 351W, my experience tells me that starting with a pig it is hard to make a leather purse, and a silk purse ain't gonna happen. I'd suggest finding a pair of GT40 heads and use them. If you get serious about that I have some info regarding which years the Explorers had what cc combustion chambers on those heads, and the smaller chambers will give you way too much compression ratio for pump gas. Happy to consult on that, even concerning porting, but a read of my thread on Porting D8OE Heads would help with the understanding.

Last, but not least, looking forward to seeing the Bronco. And, btw, I think I have a vacuum reservoir if you need one.