Dartgame

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 ?

Opened up the can of proverbial worms. I started adjusting the valves on my 218 which has about 40K original miles on it. I noticed that a few of the valves appeared to have no lash and unfortunately I adjusted them. Afterwards I thought about it after running the engine and hearing a few noisy tappets, that these must have cupped the adjuster disguising the open lash. So I need a way to get these few back to some where close to the correct lash I need a method to estimate that range. If I know the threads per inch on the adjuster I should be able to get the lash someplace half way close. For instance if they are 32 threads per inch, 1 divided by 32 = 0.03125 inches, thus to get .010 to .014 - close the lash to zero and back off the adjuster by about 1/3 of a turn. Anybody know the thread size and pitch ? Either that or a method to adjust these cupped adjusters ? I am against running the engine hot and adjusting since there is no way to check the clearance, but could be done by ear I suppose.

Hickory - that sounds pretty sketchy. I doubt washers should be used as spacers on any standard style clutch....keep us posted !

Would like to know what brand your fan is, is it modified to fit the water pump hub ?

I did away with the oem type housing and went to a muscle era V8 (1960-70's) housing. The housing I bought was an aftermarket type with thick flanges and so on. I used a spiral flex upper hose which had the correct size on one end for the radiator and a smaller size that fit the V8 housing. I also used a V8 type thermostat which can be had at any parts store. I prefer the robertshaw thermostats, they are far more accurate on the opening temp. I made this change because I was unable to get my oem type housing to seal to the head, I planed the flange flat and then I tried a bunch of things, gasket with and without the special gray silicone for thermostats, all leaked. I also allowed 24hrs cure time for the silicone. The V8 housing hasn't leaked a drop.

Had a similar issue with my 52. Had plenty of spark, was getting gas into carb. Turned out to be old deteriorated gas, dumped the tank, and carb put in fresh gas and it started and runs fine. Remember these motors are low compression, they wont tolerate old gas. I suspect the higher volatile components in gas evaporates over time and you are left with a kerosene like fuel.

I've been thinking about putting in a stock 6 blade fan in place of the 4 blade I have now. With the age of these things I have some concern about there being a potential failure (loosing a blade and ripping up the hood or fender). So I was wondering if anyone has had luck finding a new aftermarket type with the correct center register. Thoughts comments ?

If it leaks you may try repairing it. I had mine checked at a local rad shop and they told me it was unfixable without recoring it. Recore was way out of sight $$$. I searched and found aluminum repops being made specific to my car. So I put in a Aluminum rad, very reasonable cost. Bolted right in works perfect. Take a look on ebay or google.

are you talking about the pinion diameter or the spline diameter ? Pinion is 3/4 " and the spline is 1 inch, I believe. Use a mic and check to be sure.

Depends on your mechanical ability as to whether to tear it down yourself, and a sense of adventure. I dont have a ton of experience with transmissions but jumped in and did mine myself. Works fine ! Be sure to get a service manual for guidance. I tore down my overdrive 3spd and it needed several gears replaced in the 3 spd portion. I had another plain jane 3 spd and used it to get the pieces needed to fix the overdrive gear box. The big thing is to get a rebuild kit with all the bearings etc in it before you start. I sourced mine through Northwest transmission (located in Ohio). they had everything needed to do it, except a few other bearings like the front ball bearing, and the rear which I got through one of the big auto parts dealers, like Napa etc.