My truck came from the previous owner(s) missing several key emissions parts. Rather than try and put it all back together I want to remove it ALL! The cat was blatantly removed, and there appears to be no other electronics except the ignition which may have even been replaced however I don't know. The ignition module on the drivers side wheel well has wire nuts splicing something together and says "standard" on the box...def not a motorcraft part unless ford used standard brand products. I'm still kind of new to ford gas engines as I've only owned diesels in the past. I myself removed the AIR pump but left the piping in tact. The engine has an edelbrock performer and matching intake.

I guess what I'm asking is what else do I need to do to turn this into a non-emissions engine? Should I look for a different distributor or what? As of now the truck isn't running right and is sucking fuel down like no other. I'd like to at least eliminate the "emissions" factor from my troubleshooting here.

Again I'm not familiar with ford engines so any input as to how this works or should work is MUUUUCH appreciated!


The motor is a 302 with a 3 speed auto trans.
Al

 

Sounds like you need to go through the wiring for the electronic ignition, and tune the carb. "Standard" is probably a jobber DS2 box from Standard Motor Products that may or may not have come with plugs. What year engine is this?

Edit: Standard's ignition modules all come with plugs. The previous owner could have been tracking down problems before selling it.

 

hmmm there are plugs on the module and I figured the standard was a replacement. The motor is an 84 so it came with a ds4 from the factory if I remember from what little I've researched so far... as for the wire nuts maybe someone replaced an ignition module with one that wasn't meant to be there and had to bypass the plug

 

If you are dumping all your emissions crap I would just retrofit a Duraspark II ignition system. It will plug into your 84 harness and is much more simple. You will need a new or junkyard duraspark II distributor and the ignition module to put on your fender.

I put a wireharness from a 300 onto my 302 so you can pull the harness from either. It eliminates all the wiring and sensors for emissions including O2 sensors/smog pump/egr/map/ etc.

 

Sounds like someone has already retrofitted a DSII ignition.
Does it have the distributor with a single vacuum line and large cap adapter?
If you want to clean up the wiring you should search out a late 70's car with the same blue grommet DSII box and remove the ignition harness.
It should plug right in and is a lot less expensive the Painless Wiring retrofit harness.

 

Yes. The distributor is a singe cap with a separate coil and vac advance

 

If it has a purple, black, orange wire plug on it it should be a DSII distributor.
This page has a handy color coded wiring diagram.
Duraspark II

Is there a ballast resistor wiried into the coil feed?

Like I said, if you have all the components already it would be simplest to find the correct harness at a junk yard.
Any blue grommet harness should work.
Painless wants $150 for the thing, but it has all the right connectors.

Plug the thermactor ports at the back of the heads and there's really nothing else to do.

What kind of carb do you have, and where is it running too rich?

 

It's got an edelbrock carb and performer intake. One thing I noticed too is the vac advance is hooked to the left side port on the carb where edelbrocks installation instructions says to use the right port on non-emission vehicles. Not sure what the vac difference is between the two but it can't hurt right? I'll look more today thanks!

 

You are already setup with no emissions, since the carb and intake have been changed. There are some things that changed during the emissions era that should be kept though, and are improvements.

-One is the electronic ignition. Look up a duraspark II, the majority of the engines in your year had it, and it should be kept. A rare few from California and different places had a computer controlled ignition, but your dist from your description with the vacuum line is not computer controlled.

-Two, I would keep the stock aircleaner and the heat stove setup that hooks to the snorkel and there are a few vacuum lines that go with this setup. Keep this working if you are going to drive it in the winter.

-Three, Keep the PCV system. Diesels have CDR's or road draft breathers, and the really old gas engines had similar. But in the 60's they went to the PCV system, and this keeps the oil inside the engine much cleaner, so it's a good emissions device also.

-Four, you will have to do something with the charcoal canister. The gas tank is vented to this device, there will be a small steel line running up the pass side of the frame. You will need to keep this vent line open, but you may detect a gas smell under the hood once in awhile. The tank needs to vent so air can replace the fuel as the engine uses it.

As far as the vacuum line to the dist, you will be choosing a vacuum source that is present all the time EXCEPT idle, or present all the time. It's up to you how you want to set the engine up, you will find it needs re-tuned each time you go from one to another. Since you have a manual transmission, you could use either, but with auto trannies I find it will only work well on the ported vacuum source(vacuum not present at idle).

 

You can always go to the bank with what Dave says, so all I want to do is expand and give my opinion. The expansion is that the Thermactor ports in the back of the heads take 5/8-11 bolts. But, they can't be more than about 1/2" long with threads all the way to the head.

As for my opinion, I always use ported vacuum to the vacuum advance. I've had poor luck getting the engine to idle down consistently with full vacuum, but they always do with ported. YMMV

 

So far here's what's done... The truck came with what I'm going to assume is DSII. Its got a vacuum dist., a hacked wire harness tying in the electronic pickup and a regular old coil (no coil in the cap/high energy ignition). On second thought and I mean no offense here but I used to be a GM guy in a past life...but did Ford ever use a coil in the cap like GM? Anyway, most everything is plugged and the vac for the advance is tapped off the left of the carb. It's definately a ported vacuum but to what degree I don't know. I looked up the edelbrock installation manual and there are two ports (ported ports) on the front for distributor vacuum. One on the left is for computer-controlled cars and the right is for non-computer controlled. What is the difference? The amount of vacuum edelbrock allowed to be pulled through the port????

AIR pump is gone, cat is gone and I plugged/removed any vacuum lines deemed unnecessary. I left the PCV in tact (isn't this like absolutely necessary for oil circulation?) and pulled the AIR pump.

Are there any adjustments on the transmission I need to make? What is the cable from the throttle linkage called? It is a throttle valve cable or is there some FORD name for it? The vehicle is a 3 speed auto not a manual (as dave had stated earlier).

One last thing...I noticed that I can't adjust my base idle. In short I cleaned the carb with a spray can of gum out and the idle went up. Obviously I cleared something out that jumped the idle up but what? Maybe mixture adjustment is out of whack???

Anyway, thanks for all your input! Much appreciated. As I mentioned prior this is my first GASOLINE powered ford. Kinda sad I went for a gas truck over a diesel but I absolutely love this body style and ride!!!!!

Thanks,

 

The DSII coil is high output.
That's why it needs a resistor in "Run", or it will overheat.
It's epoxy filled so no BS about laying it on its side...

No, Ford never did coil in cap. HEI is a GM thing.

WHICH Edelbrock carb?
IIRC one is manifold and one is ported?

 

I agree w/Jim. I don't know of a carb that had anything but the standard ported vacuum from right above the throttle plate.

As for which is which on your carb, put a vacuum gauge on them to find out. Or, stick your thumb over one to see. But, if the engine isn't running it should be spelled out in the E'brock literature. If not, if it is a 1406 I'll take a look at mine.

 

All ignition systems have some way of controlling the current flow through the coil. Old points systems and the duraspark II used a resistance in the wire to the coil +. The later Ford TFI and the GM HEI use electronics inside the module to control the current to the coil and do not use a resistor. It has nothing to do with it being high output.

 

If it's a 3 speed, that's the kickdown for the tranny. All it does is downshift the tranny when you floor the accel pedal.

Sounds like you are sucking air from somewhere else(vacuum leak). That would explain why you can't adjust the idle, the engine is running on air coming in from somewhere else. And that would also explain why the rpms went up when you sprayed the carb cleaner, the engine is running lean and it used the carb cleaner as fuel when you sprayed it and it got into the engine.