Dartgame

I'm not currently using the ammeter after my 12 volt conversion and installation of fuse panel. A friend suggested trying a shunt in the circuit to the ammeter to avoid having all the cars voltage run through it before the fuse panel. Comments or thoughts ?

looking at the pics, it cant be a B engine. The web on the block is not deep enough.

I'm not an expert on truck motors and flywheels. But I do have info on some early V8's. But in order to help more info is needed. Which V8 engine is this ? A Poly 318, early hemi or a B engine ? The pattern on the crank and the flywheel obviously don't match. Somehow your parts got mixed up, the 8 bolt pattern would be similar to those on a 230 flathead.

I had trouble finding a reasonably priced set of universal silicone suppression wires, with straight distributor boots, and 90 Degree spark plug boots. Solid core or stranded core copper wire sets could be found easily. What I did was buy a fitted set for a 6 cylinder application, that had long enough wires to cut to length, and a set of straight distributor boots and conductors.

If it does touch, you might consider a truck oil pan, in which the sump is at the back of the engine vs the center.

Well thats strange. It did with my car.

For anyone interested, I used a highway 22 wiring kit from american autowire. Expensive but really nice to work with and it has more circuits than I will ever need, my car is 12 volt negative ground. It has a big main breaker mounted close the battery from which everything is fed. I mounted the fuse panel inside above the foot pedals on the drivers side. The fuse panel is really easy to work with, it has screw terminals you attach the wires to as you go, and all the wires included in the kit are labelled and color coded. It has a big wiring diagram included that makes figuring out the circuits etc super easy, and step by step instruction sheets. A very complete kit.

That would certainly cause the issue with the float. A filter between the pump and the carb is the solution as you noted.

Colder plugs will help the engine to run cooler, but tend to foul. I've tested this in my small block mopars. I'd guess you might want to look at going hotter on those that are running cooler (fouling) as an option as well. All plug manufacturers have their own heat range codes, champions are colder with a lower number and get hotter as they increase in the plug number. Such as RN9 is colder than RN12 etc. I'd take some time and read your plugs as you change heat ranges to determine what's best of the available plug heat ranges. AS for plug manufacturers I've found NGK's to be very consistent, with 5Kohm resistance, compared to others. I tested resistance values for a number of plug makers for the same application. NGKs just work better in my opinion, but I'm unsure if they make them for your engine. Of the other plug manufacturers I tested , autolite and motorcraft are second in consistency. Look for a crossover chart on the web. Champions, and AC's run all over the place on resistance values.

A few suggestions/comments. Does your rear main seal leak ? How about the oil pan, has it been off for cleaning inside ? You might consider both since you will be most of the way there with the flywheel out for the clutch install. Also as someone else mentioned make sure to get a high quality release bearing. Be sure its an angular contact bearing design, most are not in the aftermarket. I'd suggest you investigate obtaining the largest diameter clutch for your car. Often the flywheels are drilled for two sizes, the larger in my case was a 10inch. Hard to find, but once you have both pieces they can be remanufactured in the future if needed. When I installed the R-10 overdrive trans, I needed my adult sons help, it was very heavy. We used a transmission jack, and still had major issues getting the splines to line up on the clutch disc and trans input, and yes we used the proper clutch alignment tool....

The bracket under the edge of the dash is a simple 90 degree sheet metal bend. If you look under the edge of your dash on the drivers side of the steering column you will see (most likely) a pair of holes about 1- 1.5 inches apart, thats where the bracket attaches.

thanks - I had thought about the pressure variation being related to the carb demanding fuel. I noted that it wobbles between 3 and 4 psi consistently, which I figured was the float opening and closing the inlet. The sharper drops seem odd. Higher engine speeds dont seem to change it a heck of a lot, maybe a little more frequent psi variance. When you shut the engine off the pressure reading holds and then falls off very slowly, which is reasonable, probably allowing fuel into the carb slowly as it evaporates through the bowl vents or leaking back through the check valves in the pump itself. I welcome any additional thoughts or comments.

I've been chasing some drive-ability issues with the 52 and am currently looking at the fuel pump and pressure/volume it generates. What I am seeing are fluctuations between 3-4 psi, and then erratic drops to less than 1 psi, sometimes to 2, very random and fairly frequent. I've checked the volume delivery and it seems more than adequate. The gauge I am using is a standard old style vacuum/fuel pressure combo. I was under the impression that the fuel pressure should be fairly stable, but this is not an area I have looked at. Any opinions are appreciated.

Prices on everything, not just car parts, is and has been on the rise. I shop incessantly when I am looking for parts. There are deals to be had as mentioned above on ebay. Don't forget to look at Rock Auto, they often have some unexpected items at low prices.

I used a metal filter that threads into the supply side of the mechanical pump. Original application was for a late 60's early 70's ford V8 2bbl. These had 1/8 inch pipe threads on the filtered side and a 5/16 hose barb on the other.

I replaced mine when I upgraded to disc brakes. It failed not too long afterwards. Part was from the usual suspect country of origin...I sought out several NOS switches, in this case motorcraft (Ford). So far so good. I keep a spare in the glove box, and the correct socket for it...Ford used these switches for a good amount time in the 60's and maybe 70's so finding an NOS switch is not a huge issue. Ebay is your friend.

I doubt the renu coating is doing anything untoward. Their coating is based on similar plastic used in modern plastic gas tanks, which of course don't breakdown.

Wow, I count myself fortunate, 50 psi ? My only complaint has been a slight mis-fire - now I know why - obviously due to #4. This motor is in otherwise very good condition overall, when I had the oil pan off I checked the bearings and all looked excellent.

As Keith had suggested - I finally got around to checking the compression on my 218. Pretty good except for one. All in psi - #1 = 130 , #2 = 125, # 3 = 125, #4 =75, #5 = 125, #6 =122 all in psi. Retested #4 wetted with oil, no change, burnt valve I suspect, exhaust likely. I believe the motor has 40K original miles, and without having had the tappets adjusted, result was one burnt valve. Interestingly, the valves with tight tappet clearance initially, prior to adjustment were not on #4. I suppose I could pull the head and lap #4's valves, but meh - sounds like work for a motor that's destined for the sideline. I have a rebuilt 230 sitting in the wings for next season.

If I were to guess I'd say the military spec is a mis-print. I know of no engines that use less than .001 for bearing clearances. Usually .001 to .0025 is good, .003 is getting kind of loose, for a street engine, not so much for a race motor.

The GM chip allows you to use an e-core coil, which gives you a much higher output voltage. The mopar ECU requires the use of a oil filled coil which when running can only use 8 volts or so to run. The GM hei allows 12 volts = higher output voltage ! More voltage = higher energy ignition.

I watched Keiths videos, and other posts as well. Don't want or need anything further, just finishing the post with my solution, please read my last post above. I already have it handled. I know how to use feeler gauges.

Besides my valve lash adjustment adventure, I installed the electronic distributor earlier last week. I used the well documented slant six/flat head collection of pieces, a GM 4 pin HEI chip and an ecore coil. Encountered a few mistakes/issues - #1 I neglected to jump the ballast resistor feeding the coil, thus I had no ignition start voltage. easy fix. #2 Had the plug wires off one position on the distributor cap, easy fix. #3 Car ran with distributor polarity connected either way to the HEI chip...but would stop running after about 2 minutes #4 The junkyard gm coil I used proved to be the culprit. Installed a new ford ecore coil, and voila runs fine, but now the the distributor polarity is absolutely sensitive. Will not run reversed. For those interested, the male plug on the distributor is the + lead. After getting it running, I fine tuned the timing, adjusted the carb and found I needed to reduce the idle speed about 100 rpm indicating to me more efficient combustion at low speeds. Later I opened the plug gaps to .040" which made no notice-able change in idle quality. For those contemplating the change - go for it. The thing has never started as well as it does now - immediately starts from cold, not that it started badly before. I can let it sit for a few hours and cool off, come by and touch the key and its running. Very good upgrade in my opinion.

Excellent Ideas about this situation. Will keep this in mind. Anyway, I fiddled around with the lash adjustment and came to a conclusion that the few lifter adjustment pads I thought were cupped - are indeed NOT cupped. Keep in mind this car has 40K on it and never had the valves adjusted from what I can tell. What I believe is that over the years with the valves sinking into the block a little, it caused next to no lash on a few isolated valves. Adjusting the valves - So what I did was use the speedy valve adjustment chart where you use TDC for 1 and 6 and adjust the valves as indicated in the chart. Interestingly what I found was several valves ended up being looser adjusted this way from 2-4 thousands larger using 10 and 12 thou for intake and exhaust respectively. So what I did - for instance was bring #3 intake up to full lift (approximately by eye) and then checked and adjusted #3 exhaust. I went around all 12 valves this way and located several that needed this fine tuning. All done cold. Started her up and voila running like a sewing machine. I suspect the speedy chart doesnt account for the cams ramp in a few cases and thus gives the wrong lash reading. I ran the motor and fiddled with one of the exhausts that was not spinning. I tightened it a little so it was reading about 9 thou hot, and it started spinning some anyway. The rest looked fine. I was hesitant about messing with this stuff hot, but it was not as bad as I had imagined. What I am going to do is get some long feeler gauges ranging from .009 to .014 so as to avoid touching the hot exhaust manifold when running, adjust as needed, and close the book on this learning chapter.

Thanks, I'd like to get them closer before running - Anybody else ?