martybose

That's true, but the most accurate way of getting TDC is to find the rough TDC as you mention, then pick a measurement slightly lower than that. There will be two points where you can get that measurement, one before and one after TDC. Move to one of those points and mark where on the damper the pointer sits, then move to the other one and mark the damper where the pointer is then. The point halfway between the two marks on your damper is the true TDC. Marty

If you are running an original head there will be a small plug in the head for #6 cylinder. If you can get it out you can use a long rod to find actual top dead center, then set your pointer to point to the TDC mark on the balancer. Marty

If you are going 6V negative ground you will need to switch the wires at the ammeter, the coil, and possibly the fuel gauge (mine never worked, so not sure about the latter). Obviously, also the battery! You don't have to switch the starter or the heater motor. I'm presuming you have a 6V negative ground charging system; if not, I still have the 6V negative ground one wire alternator that I used before I went 12V. Marty

Or you could try what I did. Get a small tiewrap or two; you'll find that if you position it correctly you can put it around the outside of the counterweights and the cap will still fit on. Leave the initial advance at 3-4 degrees BTDC and leave the vacuum advance working. This was the combination that finally stopped my motor from pinging on my torque test hill. Marty

I tried setting my HEI at 12 degrees and it knocked like crazy every time I stood on the gas. Cut the initial (less vacuum) to 3 degrees, then it was okay around town, but heated up on the highway. I wound up tiewrapping the counterweights to see if the centrifugal advance was too much, and found it eliminated that problem. Right now (if I had the head back on my engine, which I don't right now) I woudl be running 3 degrees initial with manifold vacumm to the vac. advance, and no centrifugal advance at all. Later on I wil experiment with springs etc. to see about adding a little centrifugal advance higher up in the RPM range. All of this is on a 230 bored out .072" with a mild cam, dual Carter-Webers and an Edmunds head running about 9 to 1 compression. Marty

I doubt that the retorquing had anything to do with bolts versus studs; almost every gasket type except steel shim will compress some after going through a few heat cycles. Also, keep in mind that the amount of additional compression for a 1/4 turn of a fine thread nut is about the same as just over 1/8 turn of a coarse thread bolt. Marty

I'm glad you got the studs and kept the aluminum head. I'm sure that as long as you retorque the head again after running it a while you should have no further head gasket issues. Marty

If that really is a 1954 engine there should be a small hole at the upper edge of the front end of the block that lines up with a hole in both the gasket and the waterpump. If you are missing any of those holes you will have a situation where the water in the head has no place to go until the thermostat opens up, which is not a good thing. The unspoken assumption is that the head you are using has the hole at the front end which corresponds to the extra hole in the deck surface, which in turn feeds the hole at the front of the block. Marty

The extra hole for the internal bypass is actually a 1/2" or maybe 5/8" hole in the back of the waterpump, adjacent to the moon-shaped cutout. You can't see it without removing the pump. Marty

A while back someone posted an interesting rundown of the advance characteristics of a stock OEM flathead distributor. The interesting thing it showed was high vacuum advance and low centrifugal advance cruising at low speeds (say 30 MPH), then as the speed increased the centrifugal advance came in, then as the cruising speed exceeded around 50 MPH the vacuum advance started to decrease as the throttle was opened more, and was completely gone by around 75 MPH. The net effect was maximum total advance at maybe 45 MPH, then decreasing total farther up. Marty

No need for a picture. I disagree with some of our brethren about what vacuum signal to run; on mine, I plugged all of the carb vacuum ports and added a port into the intake plenum itself. I'm running straight manifold vacuum, and I currently have the centrifugal advance in my HEI disabled by tiewrapping the counterweights, as I was getting too much centrifugal advance at highway speeds otherwise. Given that there is a common plenum between the carbs, if the carbs are close to being synchronized I see no reason to have to use both carbs' vacuum ports. Marty

I agree about ARP head studs, but question your torque setting. My mechanic warned me that as long as I lubricated the nuts and washers I should use a setting of no more than 55-60 lbs. of torque. As a side note, I like studs a lot; I'm just finishing replacing the always-leaking bolts on my waterpump with some stainless coarse thread/fine thread studs. Hopefully they will seal better, as I will definitely have to pull the radiator if I ever need to replace the waterpump. Marty

I'm running the same carbs, and if the choke setup is working it should be running. From your description I would suspect you are not getting fuel to the carbs. Have you confirmed that fuel is reaching the carbs by disconnecting the line at the carb while cranking the motor over? I suppose that the floats level could be messed up, but since I never had to adjust mine, I would think they might be fairly close as shipped. Marty

... or you could email Neal Riddle seaplym@hotmail.com or call him at 206-285-6534 in Seattle. to find out if he has some more of the throttle pedal pivot repair kits that he sells on eBay occasionally; I just received one from him last week. See eBay item 280232064901 to see what I'm talking about.

I'd do a compression test, just to see if any of the valves got bent while it was passing through, otherwise I'd just keep on driving ...... Marty

I've had the best luck with Kroil products, made by http://www.kanolabs.com/ I used AeroKroil on my bumper bolts, which were frozen solid and immovable. Sprayed them twice over a couple of day period, then successfully removed all of them. Marty

There are actually both 6V and 12V relays that are intended to be headlight relays, because they have a pair of relays with a common hot source under one cover. The dimmer switch just becomes a signal input to the two relays. Marty

The only thing missing from that trailered unit is the turntable that they sat on. There was a second clutched drive from the hemi that engaged a gear that rotated the unit. Most of these things had a one gallon LPG tank that would run the engine for several minutes; you just start it up and leave. Marty

Sorry to get your hopes up Arthur, i didn't realize you had the BIG motor! Mine's a 230 and the mounting for the vacuum can is much different; looks like I haven't got what you need. Marty

The ones I have look a little different, particularly where yours has a little tab at the mounting surface. Is this for a small block? (I was going to post a picture of mine, but I can't find my cheat sheet on how to post from my ISP server!) Mine doesn't have the square edged top section above the mating line, it tapers down to the casting that the hose connects to. Also, the arm that connects to the point plate has a major offset up in it, which I don't see in your photo. I'm not sure we're talking about the same part. Marty

I'd love to have this problem! With the dogleg in the filler tube to my plastic gas tank, it takes incredible finesse just to keep the nozzle open while running at minimum possible flow. Maybe when I hit the lottery I'll buy a brand new stainless tank to replace it ........ Marty

Arthur, I'm pretty sure I have at least a couple of good ones on my distributor cores. Post which distributor and I'll check them. Yours for the cost of postage. Marty

I don't know why aluminum heads would need less headbolt torque, as you still need to have sufficient clamping force to seal the gasket against the block. If anything, I would assume that the aluminum head would flex a bit more than the iron head, therefore wouldn't seal quite as well. I think you're blowing gaskets because the head isn't torqued down enough! Marty

I'm surprised at the low torque setting. I always thought that the spec was something like 75 for head bolts and 55 for head studs, due to the fine pitch most studs used for the nut. When I blew my head gasket was soon after I bought the car, and I found that the head apparently hadn't been retorqued after the gasket was changed, and most of the headbolts were hardly tight. I replaced the gasket with a FelPro (sounds like same construction as your Reinz) using Gasgecinch (sp?) on the copper side of the gasket, torqued it to 75 initially, then checked it a couple of times after driving for a while. Most of the bolts did tighten up a bit. When I put on my Edmunds head I used the same gasket and process but with new head studs, torqued to 55 pounds, and have never had a gasket go. It normally runs about 200 degrees, and did see about 220 when I was experimenting with the timing curve of my HEI. When I pulled the head off for my latest upgrade project the gasket was in perfect shape. Marty

I blew a gasket between 5 and 6 once. No water leaks at all, because there aren't any water passages in the area between the two back cylinders where they tend to blow. I seriously doubt that it had anything to do with the bearing issue. Marty