Sorry to bug you gents with more rookie questions.
first question:
I bought a used 9 inch 3rd member from Roush-Yates a while back. It's a 4.00 Detroit locker 31 spline. I used the standard Valvoline 75-90 weight gear oil. Is that what I should be using? I know it's supposed to be noisy, and I have zero experience with these things, but it sure seems to be extra clunky and noisy. Especially after I run it thru the gears, then make a slow turn or two in a parking lot. Also, it didn't come with a fill plug so I drilled and tapped one in where they normally are. (No shavings etc ended up in the unit if that's what you're thinking) I was very careful and am completely confident of that. Can you guys tell me roughly how much gear oil should it take to fill it? I may have put the fill hole a tad low so I jack up the fill side to keep it higher and top it off like that. I think it took right at 2 quarts.

2nd question:
I also recently put on Edelbrock heads. I was talking to an Edelbrock tech support guy today getting advice on metering rods etc for my 1407 Edel carb at our altitude here. The guy asked what my timing advance was. I told him the builder told me to keep it no higher than 12 degrees, however I replaced the heads since then. The tech said that because I went to the Edelbrock heads I could advance it to as high as 15 degrees. Can anyone give me a brief explanation on why that would be? I set it to about 14 and it made a big difference - really great response now. Is it possible that this will mess up my motor?

Oh, my motor is basically a 410 (416 actually), it's a 390 with a 428 crank bored .030 over. Edel 750 carb, RPM performer intake, Edel heads. FPA headers, a lunati 428 CJ cam.

thx a ton for reading my posts.

Dave Jones

I have at least 2 bad exhaust valves so I'm going to replace the old rebuilt c4ae-g heads with some Edelbrocks. Sucks, because the motor has only about 1000 miles on it.

The guys on www.Squarebirds.org helped me troubleshoot it. I looked up how to hollow out a spark plug and did just that. Used my rubber tip on the air compressor and held it tightly in the plug tool while it was in place of the spark plug. Made sure the valves were seated and sure enough, the exhaust valves are not working on the number 8 and 4 cylinders. I can hear the air blowing right out the exhaust.   

The only good part is that I can do the work myself. When I first pulled the donor motor out of a 67 LTD I pulled the heads on it to replace a blown head gasket - I just wanted something to run until I had my motor professionally built. I used my 59 Ford Thunderbird shop manual and some other resources to do all the work and it came out pretty good for a guy that's never taken apart a motor. Heck, with all the room I have in this engine bay I won't even have to pull the motor. The FPA headers can come off with the heads and go back on with the new ones. Be a lot easier than pulling the motor, etc.

OK, so here are the specifics.
It was completely rebuilt about 1000 miles ago. It's a 390 with a 428 crank, bored 30 over - makes it a 416. 10.5 to 1 compression. Has a Edelbrock RPM Performer intake. A Edelbrock 750 carb. Lunati's version of the 428 CJ cam. FPA headers. A 428 oil pump, comp springs, stainless steel valves, moly rings. A wide ratio 4 speed toploader, 4.00 Detroit locker rearend.

I'm guessing these: http://streetperformanceusa.com/i-9592962-edelbrock-performer-rpm-fe-cylinder-head-chamber-size-72cc.html?gclid=CJOV24Wrh8ACFQQSMwodeD8Aug

Has anyone ever bought from these guys?

thx in advance, Dave J

Rarely find FE parts around here so I thought I may buy these. Any ideas how they flow compared to Edelbrocks?

1963 Ford 406 cylinder heads FE series hi performance Bare C3AE 6090C castings

thx, Dave

Will a FE motor fit in a 63 Fairlane 500? I may have found a decent car without a motor or transmission.
Also, are there parts or kits available to change the pedal set up from an automatic to a 3 pedal car? I love rowing the gears.

Dave J

I was testing my car out and missed a powershift from 2nd to 3rd. It revved to about 6K, but that shouldn't be a problem in and of itself. Anyway, I drove about a mile back to town and when I came to a stop I noticed the motor was missing a little. I don't know if this is related to the rev, but thought I should mention it.

If I drive it at low RPMs it misses, but if I get it up to wide open throttle it runs fine.

I pulled a plug (#8) and noticed it was black. I decided to go through all the plugs one at a time to see if a fouled plug was the problem, it wasn't. I noticed that plugs from cylinders 4, 8, and 1 were blackish, I think the others were OK color wise. Another thing I notice is that the primary side of my Edelbrock 1407 is a little black too. Is this an indication that I have my idle set too rich?

I decided to listen to each side of my exhaust, they are independent sides with cheap little 18 inch glass packs. I couldn't really tell anything sound wise, but when I put my hand over the exhaust I noticed the drivers side felt noticeably cooler than the passenger side. I have no idea if this means anything, it's just a rookies observation.
 
Any advice on what to look at next? Or even a troubleshooting flow chart type process?

I took pictures and will up load a few of the carb and the plugs here in a bit.

thx in advance for any thoughts.

Dave J
 

Didn’t do too well, but I had a blast. Made six runs with a best time of 15.125 with a reaction time of .623. (My average reaction time was .510) next time I'll just start on the last yellow and be much better.
The first run I drove right through the water and didn’t do a burnout. The starter had me roll down my window and explained that next time be sure to do a burnout, or drive around it. EVERYONE who worked at the track was awesome, really good people, and super helpful with everything. Sadly, my first run was the only one that the car ran right, the other 5 runs it was cutting out at different times. Not sure what it was, but at home it was running fine. The altitude at home is 6800, at the track it’s about 5200. I also had way too much spinning off the line the first 3 runs (it’s an open differential). The last two runs I did burnouts - I also revved at the line to about 5000 rpm and then feathered the clutch a lot better.  But every run I left a lot of time out there - either spinning, sputtering, or bad reaction. I made a ton of notes and feel I will do a lot better next time. Plus next time I’ll have a posi to go with my Centerforce dual friction clutch. I truly believe that if I could have got the car running cleanly and gotten off the line around .300 I would have been at 14.5ish range. Get the posi pumpkin in the car and I should be in the low 14's at a mile high.
And yes "Fastback 427", I'm hooked!

Any ideas what would cause the car to go flat during a run? I've never experienced valve float, but I image what I was experiencing feels like that. However, it happened once at about 4000 rpms in first gear. Another time it happened in 1st and 2nd, and another time it happened in 3rd. Usually around the 4500 - 5300 rpm range. It was a lot hotter than the car is used to. I had to let it cool down between runs because it was up to 215 degrees.

regards, Dave Jones 

I stumbled across two different 390 block\motors and was wondering which one might be better for a 445 stroker build.
The first one is just a block, 1963.  The second one is a running (barely) 1973 F-150.

The guy with the bare 1963 block wants $200. He also has a set of 406 heads for $300  C3AE. Are those heads any better than most?

thx in advance, Dave J

I have a 410 FE Mercury build. We are at high altitude, 6800 feet. The intake is an Edel RPM performer - carb is a Edel 750 with the correct metering needles and jets for my altitude. It has a medium cam and CJ valves, and headers. I have a Pertronix ignitor and new set of Accel plug wires. I haven't yet gotten my Pertronix coil. When I do I'm going to try a little wider plug gap. Meanwhile I have adjusted the idle mixture screws to be as lean as possible cuz of the high altitude. I adjusted the dizzy by stretching the springs a little and have managed to get it down to all in at about 3300 RPM - all in is 38 degrees. At 2500 rpm it is at about 35 degrees. My initial timing is at 12-13 degrees.

Can anyone recommend some plugs that won't foul as easily as the stock plugs?

Thx in advance, Dave J