38plymouth

Not really sure what you are seeing, but, good news it looks like, the leak topped.

Somethings very wrong there.

I brought my old shocks to Napa and we matched them up to new gas charged shocks and they were pretty inexpensive. I wouldn't waste my money with bernbaum. My car rides much nicer too.

I put them all at 65 this morning. I also found 2 that needed a quarter turn this afternoon after a cool down. One was in the center one row away from the leak.

No...

Anyone want to venture a guess on how much my compression increases from the aluminum head? I was at 98,98,96,98,100,104 with the stock head. I did gain 2 pounds of vacuum at idle. It's now hovering around 19-20.

No, it was checked at the machine shop 4-5 years ago when the spark plug threads were repaired. I checked it with a straight edge before the install and it looked perfect.

This is what I dealing with, it's much smaller than it was yesterday so pulling the nuts and oiling the threads helped. Or increasing the torque in that area helped. I'm going to keep warming it up and letting it cool and recheck the nuts for several days. I don't want to have to start over.

This is what I dealing with, it's much smaller than it was yesterday so pulling the nuts and oiling the threads helped. Or increasing the torque in that area helped. I'm going to keep warming it up and letting it cool and recheck the nuts for several days. I don't want to have to start over.

Fel pro gasket and no sealer. I have never used sealer on the fel pro style gasket, I think it says you arent supposed too. It's definitely seeping past the gasket.

The leak is smaller and slower now and is only below the nipple for the the heater hose. I tempted to lighten the nut closest to the leak a little more but I'm afraid of stripping the stud of snapping it off.

I swapped out my stock head for a Fenton aluminum head that I've had for years. I've had the head on and off this engine at least five times since I owned it and never had an issue. This time however water was seeping out on the passenger side rear right above the rear intake and exhaust manifold. I ran it through a heat cycle and it leaked even worse when it cooled. I checked the torque and everything was good. The book says to torque the nuts to 55 to 60 foot pounds for an aluminum head. I pulled all the nuts back off cleaned the studs really good lubricated and reinstalled the nuts and that seemed to help. I ran it through a heat cycle and saw no leaks. This morning the leak is smaller but it's still there. I checked the torque on the cool engine and nothing changed. I did bump up the torque to 65 foot pounds on six nuts near the leak. I ran it to another heat cycle and so far so good but I believe once it cools again it might come back. Not sure what to do now. What is the highest safe foot pounds I can try? Maybe try bars leak? I really don't want to tear this thing back down. I don't believe the head is warped, it was fresh from the machine shop 4 years ago but just putting it back on now. I checked it with a straight edge before install. I used a new fel pro gasket and cleaned everything really well and used the proper sequence when tightening everything down.

I stretched out the leather on the one that was in the car and it works so much better. The off idle stumble is now gone. I kept going back and forth with timing and idle and idle mixture screws trying to get the best vacuum. It definitely is running smoother and better but still has a little bit of a stumble sometimes. I was able to open the choke all the way and I think it is running good now. I guess I will find out when I take it out for a drive but I just don't have time for that today.

So I went to my storage unit and picked up my car and brought it home yesterday. Unfortunately I don't have room for it in the garage at home so I got the storage unit and now the car sits there and I don't drive it much. A little over a year ago I rebuilt the carburetor and everything was working pretty good. I only use ethanol free fuel in the car and I noticed on the drive home I had a terrible off idle stumble and acceleration was pretty miserable. It's one of the things I've always hated about the carburetor on it. This morning I decided to start playing around with the engine. I've always had a Miss at idle and it just never seemed to run really great. I hooked up a timing light to each spark plug to see if I could locate what cylinder had the miss and it does not appear to be an ignition issue. I bought a new vacuum gauge and hooked it up and started setting the timing and idle mixture based on vacuum. I got the vacuum up to 19 pounds and it's pretty steady except for the occasional drop when the Miss happens. After changing the timing a bit and playing with the carburetor mixture screw the miss is mostly gone. I have not driven the car yet to see how the timing feels or if I have any detonation. I noticed when I worked the throttle I didn't see much of a squirt from the accelerator pump. I pulled the top of the carburetor off and the accelerator pump definitely doesn't fit tight in the hole and doesn't really pump the fuel. I dug through some of my parts and found three new accelerator pumps that I have soaking in oil now. Hopefully that will help the problem. I also noticed my PCV valve didn't seem to be seating anymore so I had a constant vacuum leak at idle. For now I just plugged off the vacuum line to the PCV valve. I'm a just about to eliminate that whole thing, I did it in the hopes of getting rid of some of the stinky smell getting into the car but it seems like it's always created issues. The car has always run lean at Cruise and I have to keep the choke half-closed to get the car to run good. I have an original Fenton aluminum head that I used to run on the car until I stripped some spark plug holes. I had that professionally repaired years ago and just never had time to put it back on. The plan this week is to put the head back on and see if I can get this carburetor situation straightened out. The car always used to run really well with the aluminum head and the dual exhaust. If I can't get it running great I think I'm going to just be ordering a new carburetor.

I want to set my points with a dwell meter. I don't own one so I started searching for one and almost everything pops up as a regular multimeter. I have analog and digital multimeters already but I don't think they will really measure dwell. If they do how do I do it? If not what dwell meter should I buy? I can't find anything local except at harbor freight for $50. I'd rather not spend that much for a tool I might use 5 more times in my lifetime.

Thank you.

Any pics of the carb installed? Im curious of the height when installed with the adapter and also the linkage.

I have searched for a vacuum leak for years and have never found anything. The car runs great but only with the choke half closed. The issue started after adding the split manifold and dual exhaust. I'm also tired of the stripped screws and leaky throttle shaft. I'm ready to try something new.

My issue is that you can't rejet the b and B carb. My runs way lean so I have to run it with the choke halfway closed.

I'm not going with another b&b. I need to be able to change the jets. How hard is it to change them on the langdons?

I'm getting tired of my original carb. I have stripped holes and a worn throttle shaft. I have rebuilt it so many times over the last 20 years. My car has a split manifold with the heat riser welded and dual exhaust. I can't get the car to run great unless the choke is half closed. I want a new easy to adjust carb that I can change the jets and get the engine to run perfect. I'm looking at langdons carb but wondered if anyone found anything else that works well.

I installed a new fuel pump rebuild kit this morning from then and now and no more leaks. Thank you gentleman for the advice.

I didn't see a crack anywhere and its leaking less than it was originally. If I get a chance today I will pull it back out and see if I can find the problem.

I put the pump back together and didn't see anything wrong with any of the parts or the diaphragm I also put in all new fuel lines since the old ones were very brittle even though they were a year old. I've used nothing but ethanol free gas since then. I'm guessing I got some bad lines from somewhere. Anyhow I thought that was going to solve the problem for today I got the car running and saw that fuel is either dripping from the diaphragm or from the bottom body cover where the two Springs are. In looking at the exploded view of the fuel pump that sure seems like the only possible source of a leak like that would be the diaphragm but I can't see anything wrong with it. I am ordering a rebuild kit today hopefully that solves the issue.