67 Fairlane GTA 390 cruiser

[ScotiaFE]

An easy trick to see if your vac secondary is opening is to put a small tie wrap on the lever
just snug enough to slide up and down.
Take it out and stomp on it.
If the tie wrap moved down then the secondary is opening.
It won't tell you how fast, but that it is working.

[amdscooter]

Well, that's a big relief on the size of the carb lol. Next question - did the carb come with the car or did you purchase it recently? Reason I ask is looking at the specs in the intruction sheet it shows a "plain" secondary spring, which is in about the middle range of stiffness, but looking in a older Holley catalog I have it shows that carb coming with a "black" spring which is the stiffest. I would verify which spring it has. With a "black" one I'd guess you'd be barely opening the secondaries, if at all. Either that or just follow Jay's advice and work out a way to check for secondary opening under driving conditions. Oh, and by the way, that's one sweet Fairlane.

Thanks and thanks! The Holley did not come with the car, I purchased the carburetor new January 2011. I have not been able to get it on the street this week at all as the power steering leak is still not resolved. I'm planning on going to manual steering and am just waiting for a part. Then the PS pump, cylinder, control valve and all the darn hoses are going into a box and shelved for the time being. Once I'm rid of that I'll get back to tweaking the carb. My buddy is also on the hunt for a loaner double pumper for troubleshooting purposes.

ScotiaFE, sounds like a good go/no go test. thanks for the suggestion.

[amdscooter]

Seems like summer here the last few days. After removing the power steering completely I was able to get some drive time in.. windows down. First off I had to get used to the new flex fan noise after getting rid of the clutch fan. For timing it's peppy around town at 14 initial~40 total but I get what I believe is detonation/hesitation at highway speeds above 2700 rpm or so. I'm currently running it at 8 initial~34 total. While not as zippy off the line it performs much better at highway speeds with maybe a hint of hesitation every now and then that could even be wind buffeting. So over sensitive to that kind of stuff with the new build.. I need to remember to keep that in mind. I might try taking the timing down to 6 initial tomorrow to see if it's the cheap gas causing any issues. I don't believe I need to run 92 octane as this is supposed to be a low compression "H" code 390. But I'm going to try some 92 to see if it makes any difference at all. Idles at about 1k rpm in park and 7~800rpm in gear.

As far as the carburetor, the accel pump is in the bottom hole and the cam is orange in color. I might also try the "upper" or #1 accel pump hole tomorrow to see if it makes any difference off the line. Secondaries are opening. Quickie video I took this morning when there was still a bit of chill in the air before the days driving..

http://youtu.be/zehIx_27R4I

All in all a fun day driving around town. 

[amdscooter]

Well I've finally exhausted myself trying to get the timing dialed in right with my re-manufactured stock distributor. I tried a Petronix FF2, points, spring kit, etc. and just could not get what I wanted out of it. Broke down and ordered a MSD 8595 ready to run. I'm planning on configuring it for 21 degrees total mechanical advance and I'll run 12~15 initial. My FE does not like much over 36 degrees total so this should keep me inside my total advance budget. I'll probably lock the vacuum as well and spring it for "all in" by 2500. I had reasonably good results with similar setup in the stock distributor except I could not run enough initial with it.

I was wondering what coil the rest of you use? I currently have a Flamethrower 1 installed. But I've read around that the MSD likes lower Ohm coils. Recommendations/comments?

***edit***
The 8595 is the "Ready to run" not "Pro billet". Had dizzy on my mind and my fingers got ahead of my brain. 

[jayb]

You will like the MSD distributor, I've had great luck with them.  I usually use one of MSD's Blaster 2 coils, or else an HVC2 coil, along with a Digital 6 box.  I've had pretty good luck with that combination.

[amdscooter]

You will like the MSD distributor, I've had great luck with them.  I usually use one of MSD's Blaster 2 coils, or else an HVC2 coil, along with a Digital 6 box.  I've had pretty good luck with that combination.

Thanks! Had to edit my last post as the 8595 I purchased is the "ready to run" not "pro billet" model. The deciding factor was the outright ease of configuration it offers. Being able to easily lock out the vacuum advance, change the advance springs and simply shim the total mechanical advance will remove a lot of the "pain" of dialing in the tune. Well worth the investment IMHO. Many folks seem happy with the MSD product. The soft RPM limiter is a bonus.

The MSD website recommends the Blaster 2 with the 8595 but gives no reason why over their other offerings. I was comparing the specs for the Blaster2 and Blaster3 and they appear to have the exact same performance profiles. The difference being the Blaster3 has a taller coil wire tower with a male HEI style connector meant to prevent arcing. Can I use my standard 8mm plug wires with the MSD? Which would you recommend if I wanted to keep an upgrade path to the possibility of adding a Digital 6 box later?   

Thanks
Scott

***added***

Might as well ask as long as I'm here. What brand spark plug wires do folks here run? Figured as long as I'm swapping out the dist and coil it'd be a good time to service my 15 year old 8mm wires. I'm currently looking at these:

MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor Spark Plug Wire Sets 35383
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-35383/media/images

&

Davis Unified Ignition LiveWires C9069-200BL
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dui-c9069-200bl/overview/year/1967/make/ford/model/fairlane

I've never heard of Davis. They have a slightly angled boot at the spark plug end and are 10mm. Any benefit over the MSD set?

[bartlett]

I run the MSD 8.5mm Super Conductor Spark Plug Wires from summit and found them WAY to long. I have the tools to cut and shorten the wires. to save some problems order the cut to fit ones. It comes as a kit and is very easy to do .

[jayb]

+1 on the cut to fit, 8.5mm MSD Super Conductor wires; they have always worked well for me.

[BruceS]

+1 on the cut to fit, 8.5mm MSD Super Conductor wires; they have always worked well for me.

Scott, the Taylor 8mm cut to fit wires were recommended to me, and have worked great with my MSD Pro-Billet dist.  Agree that Cut to Fit is the way to go. Once you get the right tool to strip and cut the wire, the rest is easy and you get the exact installation you want.  Nothing against the MSD wires and I would try them next time.
Bruce

[amdscooter]

^^^^ Thanks for the advise guys! Went with the MSD 8.5mm and MSD Blaster3 coil. Should make for a fun afternoon replacing the dist and wires. 

[amdscooter]

Had some time to get under the hood today and I'm pretty happy with the results. The vacuum secondary 600cfm Holley came off and the new Holley 750cfm double pumper is siting in its place on top of a new 1" spacer. Got a new Edelbrock air filter element that sat lower and gave me the space I needed for hood clearance.



The difference in throttle response with the double pumper is amazing. Thing really came awake with the new carb.. like night and day off the line. 

I'm thinking I need a new fuel pump though. If I get into the throttle (not even WOT) it takes off then bogs. After bogging I let off the gas it returns to normal operation. Floats and fuel level appear ok and I changed the fuel lines and filter when I installed the new carb. Any recommendations for a good plug-n-play mechanical pump? I'm eyeballing the Edelbrock Performer RPM - Fuel Pump Part Number: 1724. It's rated at 110gph at 6psi fixed.

Lastly, is there any issue with running rubber fuel line from the pump all the way to the carb? I currently have the original stainless tubing coming from the carb outlet up to the top of the manifold. I'm wondering if I need a suitable substitute with a new pump?

Thanks
-scoot

[jayb]

That sounds more like a carb tuning issue than a fuel pump issue.  You won't use up the fuel in the float bowls in the second or two that you are seeing acceleration, then bog.  It could be quite a few things, really, but it is either too much fuel or too little.  When you stomp on it do you see any black smoke behind the car?  If so, fuel might be sloshing from the float bowl into the vents, and flooding the engine momentarily.  In that case a set of Holley vent whistles should fix you up.  More likely it is lack of fuel during the accelerator pump shot, and you can tune this with different positions for the accelerator pump cams, or different shooter sizes.  You might try watching the carb with the engine off while you slam the carb open.  You'll see fuel come out of the shooters for some period of time; that's the accelerator pump shot.  If the pump shot lasts about as long as the car accelerates before bogging, then you are probably running out of pump shot and you need to play with different pump cam positions, or different pump cams, or a smaller shooter size to make the pump shot last longer.

Glad to hear that the carb has made an improvement, and here's hoping you can clean up the bog issue with some minor changes...

[amdscooter]

Thanks for the advise! No black smoke at all.. she runs clean as a whistle till she bogs. That's why I was thinking lack of fuel right off. I'll have a go at tuning it with the different cam positions tomorrow, ran outta daylight today. Idles a whole lot cleaner now as well. I cannot wait to get the carb dialed in right. 

[jayb]

One thing I forgot is to make sure you set the float levels too, a very low float level might cause that problem.

[cjshaker]

You say it bogs with no black smoke after a couple seconds after stomping on it. If you push to WOT a little slower than stomping on it and it runs smooth through the point where it bogged, then that is a pretty sure indication that the pump shot is running out too quickly as mentioned.
That O2 sensor would really help here.

And +1 on the sweet Fairlane. A set of CJ valve covers would really look sharp on that thing! Hey, it's only money