Second! Like most racers, we blame the carb. when things don’t run the way we hoped. Guilty!
After installing my Holley Hp, the same thing happened, backfire and fire everywhere, including out of the headers, and the cause, as many of you already know, was the timing. It had been so long since I set a Crank Trigger, I had forgotten how to do it. I was saved by Mr. Joe Dunn, who walked me through the steps on the phone.
This came after Kevin Gray and I had trouble shot the heck out of everything we could think of and I changed the carb. The results were the same as the day before.
After talking to Joe, I had to set #1 piston close to TDC and get the timing pointer to 36 degrees (my choice), then make sure the distributor rotor was pointing directly at #1 spark plug wire. We then had to remove the crank trigger wheel to get the pick-up aligned with a magnet. Not only do you want to align the pick-up with the magnet, but you also want to have some retard and advance adjustment room to move the pick-up. We put the wheel on twice and once it allowed no retard, the other extreme allowed no advance. We were able to fine the right three holes to clamp it down. We dropped the distributor and it went right back to the correct spot.
Silas Rogers was helping me do all of these things and when we flipped the switches and pushed the starter button it fired and ran real smooth on the first try! A few tweaks on the fuel pressure, the float levels and rotor-phasing the distributor and we were ready to go. we warmed the engine to 155 degrees and shut it down and reset all the valves, for the 2nd time in 24 hours.
I am so pleased with the engine (again), and the way everything is working out. Reggie Jackson and James McGee stopped by later and I had to start it up for them.
Tonight we will have the “Blessing of the Workshop & Car”. Today is an appropriate day, since it is “World Prayer Day”
After the start-up I had one very small oil leak (one drop in about 5 min.) and we stopped that (The Right Stuff). It was from the front pan too timing cover seal.
Next is bolting up the torque converter and testing the trans and rear end. Then I will put the Lexan windows in place.
5/7/09 – Late – The prayer service in the workshop went very well. Mr. Gerald Boatner and his mother, Mrs. Ivory Boatner, both gave very moving prayers blessing both the workshop and the car. Mrs. Boatner is 95 year old and is the Mother of the Church at Shiloh Missionary B. C. in Baton Rouge. Gerald is a first year seminary student here in Baton Rouge. All I will say about Gerald is: “The Man Can PRAY”!
Cinco de Mayo 2009 – Learned something new today. The Ford starter relay has to be grounded through the housing to work! When I thought I was ready to start the engine, nothing happened! It took me hours to find a reference that said the relay housing is the ground. I had it mounted on a painted roll cage bar. I came very close to purchasing a new relay.
I purchased a new 45 degree AN-8 fitting from Sonny this morning and changed it out. No more leaks! Speaking of leaks, I left myself a large note that the oil gauge had a loose connection behind the dashboard. Well, I tightened that one but forgot about the loose gauge line fitting at the block just above the oil filter. When I primed the engine, I got a large puddle of oil under the car. Panic! I thought it was the rear seal, but as luck would have it, tightening up that fitting stopped the leak.
Next problem, and I am suppose to be a carburetor man, my favorite carburetor let me down. I think I need two new metering blocks. When the engine finally started, it would not run very long and it backfired back through the carb. several times. I checked my plug wires and reset the valves before changing to my other carb, a new Holley 1150 HP. The same one that was on the car when I put it into the wall almost three years ago. It had 8 runs on it, so to me, it is still new.
Side note: Start-up with a crank trigger is not as easy as just having a distributor to deal with.
I shall go and have my NHRA License Physical tomorrow. After that I am ready to start the engine again.
Kevin Gray (“Outlaw” of the Bayou Boyz) stopped by tonight while I was changing carbs and trying to figure out the problem(s). We checked each spark plug and took the resistance of several of my plug wires. I had already finished the valve lash check. Kevin is a wonderful person to work with. Keeps you laughing and he is always looking for problems, such as, I had clamped the pig tail out of the distributor between the hold-down clamp and the block.
So far, I am on schedule to have a “Blessing of the Workshop and the Car” on Thursday. Mrs. Ivory Boatner, Mother of the Church, of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church of Baton Rouge, LA will conduct the “Blessing”. Mrs. Boatner is 93 years old and get around better than a lot of 50-60 year old people that I know. We hope to go to Evadale, TX this weekend for my IHRA Chassis Inspection.