alsil

Nope. Good try though. !&@^#@!!! Al

Working on it this morning. Trying some new stuff. Very baffled. I might have been on the wrong track. I think it may be running LEAN instead of rich. It is kind of doing all the symptoms - running hot, missing, surging, and backfiring. Also, there's never been smoke out the tailpipe, and if it was rich there probably would be. I'm going to find out right now. Thanks! AL

Really? Looked like it would fit with my setup, but I didn't try it. What did you use, Mike? Al

Well, from my experience, the differences are not too bad, but here's pretty much what I did: -Frame mounts for the engine -cut motor mount perches from the crossmember -I used the JTR tranny mount and added 2 hole to it. I had to use a special trans mount. I'll look up the part # for you. -Since I used a power steering setup from the Mustang I got my stuff from, I had to use a remote oil filter setup. You don't have to do this with a stock rack. -I used a VDO electronic speedo, the new 4" model. That way I don't need to make a new speedo cable. -I used a Summit Racing radiator (for Ford) that is 25"x19" with a Black Magic fan. -I adapted the water and oil senders to the Ford engine. Didn't work well, they don't show much, I'm going to go with VDO guages for both next year. -If you use stock steering, you can use Heddman or Hooker block hugger exhaust with no problem. I made things difficult for myself (by putting in the Power Steering) so I lost clearence on the driver's side. I had to use a modified stock manifold ont he driver's side, and a Hooker header on the passenger side. -For the cluth operation, I used a Tilton 7/8" Master Cylinder, and a Neal pulling slave cylinder. This was documented a while back in this forum about alternatives to the Hydrolic throw out. It is a bit heavy, but I think it's my clutch that make mine so heavy. It bolts up right into place on the firewall, and is easily attatched to the bellhousing. The guy who posted about it also had a drawing all all the parts needed listed. -I "clearenced" the front crossmember about 3/4" in the middle for oil pan clearence. makes it easier to get to the front oil plug. Also, gives the oil pan a good 1" of clearence. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Email me if you have any questions. I will try and update my website soon, too. Been SUPER busy trying to get the car to run right, along with writing for a new album and tons of shows. I'll post when I have it done. AL

So, due to the events of yesterday ..........All I had time for was to swap the carbs and see if it made any difference. It made none. Hopefully thursday I'll have a bit more time. I'm going to do some jet/rod swapping and see what that does. And every other check I can think of. Who knows? Terry - Do you think a stock 350 with ram horn headers would need more fuel than a 302 with a roller cam? I fugured from the size of the cam they put in the late 302's that it would be semi-close. What do you think? I know my 305 I had in my old truck ran leaner than my old 302 in my Mustang. Neither of them had big cams, although the Mustang had a medium cam with a Torker II intake and ported Hi-Po heads (2.1X1.25 I, 1.4x1.1 E). Any ideas? Thanks Al I'm not a religious guy, but pray for the people we lost in NY

Nope, checked that. Brand new lines, HUGE filter, clean gas tank. no gas leaking into the venturi. But you never know. Al

The choke is wide open so far. I closed the choke and the engine died instantly. Also, another clue is that if I let the engine sit for 5 minutes, it will run again smooth for a minute. I think is HAS to be loading up. I'll see. AL

So far, I have no vacuum advance because I haven't even got this running enough to get it set up right. I can let the car warm up, and I can get a decent idle as long as I don't drive it. It will idle for about 15 minutes before it starts to get rough. I haven't even set up the choke yet. All the vacuum ports (timing, PCV, etc...) are plugged right now. The timing is set at 12 degress, and I have checked that my advance is working. It does the typical things when I change the timing, advnace makes it quicker, retard makes it slower. I'm sure both the idle screws work on mine, because they BOTH make a difference when I adjust them. Like I said, idle seems to work fine for a while. I'm going to swap the carbs tomorrow, and see what that does. I have had no time since Thursday to really mess with this car. Busy weekend. But hopefully tomorrow I can dive into this. I'm also picking up a tuning kit for the carb tomorrow, just in case the other carb works. Then I can see how I need to set it up. Al

The fuel line is nowhere near the exhaust, and I have an electric pump. Besides, I think it would probably lean pop in that case. But thanks for the idea. AL

Well, it was a good try, but the valves are not the problem. I didn't have a lot of time on Friday, so I messed with a few things, and figured I'd try out my $10 investment of the spacers. Well, didn't make a difference. It would idle a bit better (because of the milder lift of the cam) but it still did the same thing. I had an idea. Maybe my carb is leaking gas in the intake somewhere. My jetting is pretty standard, I know I probably need to lean it out, but here's the deal. I drove it a bit Saturday. At first, it ran fine, a little rough, but fine. As it got warmer, it would start to miss. Then it got WARM. It stumbled and stalled 6 TIMES!! it even backfired. Now, if there's a vacuum leak, seems to me, it would be more consistant, and wouldn't back fire out the exhaust, but out the carb (lean pop). and I had to keep it up in the revs to keep it from stalling. Al the while, I smelled gas bigtime. I am going to try and swap the carb from my truck in (same exact model) and try that out. If that works, I know my carb is defective. If not, I'm going to mess with jet/rod combos until I get close. Does this all sound reasonable? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? The reason I was thinging this, is that I had an old Holley (yes another messed up Holley story) that dumped gas into the intake BIGTIME because of a cracked metereing body (don't ask me how that happened!) So it was blowing tons of smoke and I didn't even have it running more than 15 seconds. Pulled the carb and a puddle was in the base of the intake (OUCH!) So what I'm going to do is run the Z for about 5 mintues or so, pull the carb, and see if there's puddling. If there is, I'll swap the other over, try the same thing. If it doesn't do it, then I'll check the other to see where it could possibly be leaking. I look at it this way, I doesn't cost anything but gas, so why not. Wish me luck.

That happens on Holleys, I don't remember that ever happening on an Edelbrock, that uses a plunger for an accellerator pump. In fact, the plunger is below the outlet in the carb, and in it's own bowl, seperate from the bowls and venturi by about 1/4" of aluminum. I'm suprised more of you guys don't use these carbs, I have one on my truck that I installed 2 years ago, set the jets and idle mixture and haven't messed with it since. The Holleys I used to race with needed constant adjustment. I finally gave up on them after about 1.5 years because I couldn't get a consistant setup out of it. Switched to an Edelbrock, set it once, never had to mess with it again. My 1/4's were consistantly within .2-.3 of each other, while the Holley gave me variations of .5-1. I had 4 holleys, so I know it wasn't just a messed up carb. I used 2 600's(1850), a 750 (3310), and a 650 (marine). The only one that was close was the Marine carb. Don't know why that is. Anyway, you may be right, I'm exploring all options. In fact, I have a call in at Edelbrock. We'll see how this all pans out. the only thing that makes sense to me is that the valves are tight, because as the engine heats up, the metal expands, and the seal might not be as good. You never know! Thanks AL

Yea, I knew about that. I have been building these things for a while. Supposedly it evens out stresses on the crank. I am picking up those spacers today to see if that helps. I figure $10 is a safe bet, and if I wind up pulling a vavle cover and finding that the valves are being held open, I am all set to go. If not, I'm screwed anyway. I've pretty much ruled this out as a minor vacuum leak, I did the old hand over the carb test and it stalled. That means it doesn't have a minor leak, that it is either Ok or running rich. I'll see later on today. I'll tell you all about my results tomorrow in San Leandro. If I can sort this out I'll drive it up there. If not, I guess I'm in my wife's car. Thanks for all the suggestions! You guys have really helped. Al

I did exactly that with a large screwdriver, put it between the diff and the end of the half shaft, and levered it out. Not easy, but it came right out once I got it through. Al

No, I'm not using that plate. I'm using an Edelbrock Performer Intake and Performer 1406 Carb. They are a matched pair and they say not to use a spacer on it. I have narrowed the problem down, but I still don't know for sure. I'm trying a few things tonight. You going to the meet tomorrow? Thanks AL

Ok, I didn't get much time to check anythinglast night, but I did a little. I covered the air horn, and it died. So I messed with the idle mixture a bit. Worked a little, but only until it warmed up fully. Then it died. I think the valves may be too tight. The valvetrain on the passenger side is making a lot of noise, where the other side is not at all. I didn't have time to pull the valve cover on that side, but I would bet something's not right. I'm going to loosen them up and see how it affects it. I am also going to put the vacuum guage on it tonight and maybe a compression test. Man, this stuff kills me. thanks for everyone's help on this. AL

You know, that's one thing I didn't try, and I had a friend who taught me that when I frist started working on cars. can't believe I didn't think of that. Choke is not even set up yet, it's wide open. also, the engine heats up fast, and it was overheating before. I'm pretty sure it's running VERY lean. But that was before I went through it. who knows now. but I'll try that one tonight, too.

Oh, and (because of a past experience, and because it's a good idea) I checked how the valves seat, and they were all straight. I don't know about while tightened down, but maybe I should check that. Who knows what has been done to this engine really. I don't have a PCV valve on this car yet. Haven't got that far, started the engine up, and had this problem. Barely driven it. I am going to throw the compression guage and vacuum guage on it tonight!

Well, as far as I know (and can tell) the engine has never been apart until I pulled it apart. So I don't know about that, but you know what, I will check that too. this is a completely stock motor, with stock parts. The rockers are stock, with the stock cam and lifters. This should just work, since it's all stock. in fact, before I pulled it apart I had this same problem, so I know I didn't cause this. Who knows, maybe it is the intake. I guess anything's possible!

Yea, the usual suspects. This is how it's setup from memory - -12 degrees advanced -I have a Pertronix so no points to set carb is pretty close to dialed in, have not been able to get it to run well enough to really "fine tune" it, but jetting (unless it's WAY off) on Edelbrock's doesn't affect the idle. -Plugs are at .045", Accel plugs -Ford MS 8mm wires -All Vacuum ports on carb blocked That's pretty much the stats. Like I said, it seems like everything is right. I'll give Edelbrock a call. Thanks for the tip.

I ALWAYS use sealer around the water passages on both sides of the head. I used to pull intakes on my old Mustang all the time, because I had 3 intakes, depending on where I was racing. I had a stock 4v, a Performer RPM, and a Torker II. Like I said, I've buila quite a few of these, and never had a problem remotely like this.

I'm using the '95 5.0 gaskets. the intake has no provision for EGR. It's just flat where the crossover would normally be. I dunno. I'm kind of confused, unless there is a PHYSICAL problem with one fo the castings, I don't know what to think. Kind of makes me realize why the guys sold this engine. Maybe they told him what was wrong and he decided to get rid of the engine instead of fixing it. Mike, what was the difference? It think the crossover holes are a different size on the older ones, smaller I think.

I did check the casting to find out if there were any cracks or anything weird - I saw nothing. Like I said, I went over this thing. I did NOT want to have to pull it again.

Did that when I first started having the problem. Didn't find anything. That's what led me to suspect a cracked head, or something else. Are there any other areas that I might have missed? I mean, how many places can affect the intake track? I'll probably throw the vacuum guage on again tonight to try it again, because I was so frustrated last night I just gave up and went to rehearsal. But I KNOW that all the gaskets and seals are good. I was EXTREMELY careful to make sure not so much as dust got on those gaskets. ARGH!!!! Al

Since I have no EGR on my engine (using a Performer 289 intake and Edelbrock 1406 carb), I'm pretty convinced it's a HUGE vacuum leak, too. Besides the intake gaskets, carb gaskets, and valve seal, I dont' know what to check next. The carb is new, the intake is new. The gaskets are new. I thought about swapping carbs with my truck (I have a 1406 on that, too) and seeing if maybe the carb is defective (although I can't imagine how it could be THAT messed up being brand new and showing no signs of defects). Who knows? Al

That's a good idea, except I don't have a way to do it. Besides, not sure that would work with a carb. My brother's got a compressor, maybe I can try that out. thanks! AL