1968 Colony Park 482

[FirstEliminator]

  Hey guys,
  Now, it's the beginning of September.  The last time I spent any time working on my wagon was a tad over 4 months ago, 3 days before Beaver Springs. I was supposed to have this CP wagon on the track at Beaver Springs, but due to a tick in the engine, having the flew and burnt out from many late nights, I threw in the towel.  Luckily,  Dennis (Towd56) brought down the 67 Country Squire which brought a smile to everyone's face that loves the old wagons. I certainly enjoyed  watching him run. On the other hand I might have been a little jealous as I could have been out there too if everything went right. So, after Beaver Springs the wagon sat, untouched.
   Then comes September 1st, which was the day of Musclepalooza put on by Hemmings at a dragstrip in New Lebanon, NY.  The 67 Country Squire was there too. Watching his wagon run again gave me the inspiration to get back in gear on mine. Last night I pulled the oil pan to find the tick. My suspicion was the windage tray and thankfully that is what I found.  The problem with it was the oil pump pick up was pressing up on the tray.   #1 or #2 rod bolt head was just scraping against it.  I decided to remove the windage tray instead of fixing it.  Everything went back together.
    Today, I filled it with oil and coolant. I turned the key and the darn thing probably didn't make one full revolution before cranking up. I actually drove a short distance withe the CP tonight. Very short. Backed out of the bay and back in to swap vehicles around. MSD Atomic EFI is on the engine and I spent a little time tuning it and adjusting the ignition timing.  It was nice to hear it run for a bit. The full exhaust is very quiet, which I love. There are still other odds and ends to button up on the CP. The plan is to drive it this weekend.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKttzAGq5RM

[My427stang]

Very nice, what a sleeper, especially all blue!

I bet with the EFI it's going to be a nice driver to boot.

[FirstEliminator]

So far, so good with the EFI. Seems to burn pretty clean at idle. No eye-watering rich idle mix.

[blykins]

How are the cam and rockers?

[FirstEliminator]

Hi Brent,
    I haven't have a chance to take it out for a drive. I spent more time last night looking for hardware than putting a couple things together. Amazing how it all disappears. So far, the idle is exactly what I desired. The air cleaner is a bit too tall and rubs the hood insulation. I ordered an air cleaner that is 3/4" shorter. This weekend I should be able to test drive.

[Stangman]

Very nice. I have a soft spot for wagons. Love under the hood.

[Bolted to Floor]

Congrats Mark. Glad you found the inspiration to tackle it again.The car sounds and looks great.......just what you need for cruising down the road.

I like the wagons too, but I haven’t been able to convince my wife!! 

[FirstEliminator]

Wagons are cool for cruising with family and friends.  Plus, they have purpose too!

[FirstEliminator]

 Last Friday I realized I might not have the correct distributor gear.  I placed and order with Summit for a steel gear via overnight with Saturday delivery. Saturday, I removed the distributor, pulled the gear and started swapping on the new steel gear. Stupid me, I was tapping it on with a brass hammer and a tooth broke off. Luckily, I sometimes anticipate my stupidity by doing something like ordering two gears. Here's my excuse, not a great reason, but I tried to do it with the distributor still wired to the car, because when I wired it, I soldered the wires instead of putting on a couple connectors.  With the 2nd gear, I cut the wires and brought the distributor over the the arbor press and the new gear went on as if it were on roller bearings.    Then I had some trouble with the installation. The distributor just didn't want to go in. Then I couldn't get it out, not without a lot of struggle. I had to get some paint work further along on my porch so I gave up about 2pm.
   Today, I was puzzled so I took apart the distributor and tried the individual pieces in the engine. The shaft with the gear fit with no problem. Then the housing by itself dropped in no problem.  Tonight I reassembled the distributor. Doing some measuring and trying to determine why there are two different rollpin hole heights, I decided to use the other hole which moves the gear lower on the shaft. I mocked up the distributor and applied gear marking compound. I turned the engine over and the resistance of the oil pump was enough to show the contact pattern. The pattern was very well centered in the tooth. I finished assembly of the distributor and set the timing. It took a few tries and modifications to get the timing where I wanted.
      Then, I drove the car around the block!  I just drove easy.  Ya know, of all things that could happen to a guy that owns a transmission shop.......the freakin C-6 had no 2nd gear-------what the F........?  It shouldn't be a big deal to get that straitened out tomorrow. 
    The engine is a little ticky, not like when the crank was hitting the windage tray. Maybe I am being over sensitive and nervous. All I can do is be cautious and pay attention.  Either way, it is exciting to finally have this moving under it's own power.

[blykins]

There is a dimension that has to be held when you install a distributor gear.   

On an MSD, you push the shaft in to eliminate the end-play, then measure from the bottom face of the gear to the bottom of the distributor flange.  That dimension should be 3.045-3.050". 

On a factory distributor, you pull the shaft out to include the end-play, then take the same measurement.   That dimension should be 3.071-3.078". 

On pretty much every distributor that I change the gear on, I press it on until I get the dimension I want, then drill a new hole in the shaft. 

[FirstEliminator]

While fooling around with the distributor, I did measure from the step in the distributor bore down to the pad and got a 3.062 dimension.  When I put the gear on the shaft in the higher position there was a big gap. With the rotation of the gears it looks like with resistance from the oil pump the distributor shaft wants to be pulled down. With such a big gap it looked possible that the top bushing in the distributor body would have been bearing the load instead of between the gear and pad in the block.  When installing the distributor the shaft bottomed out and then the distributor body went down just a touch more.

[blykins]

You may wanna pull it and check it, Mark. 

[FirstEliminator]

It's a Ford distributor. With the endplay pulled out, it measures 3.138.    With the endplay eliminated it measure 3.038.  The distance from the step to the pad is 3.062.   When the distributor is installed fully seated the shaft endplay measures .028". That is not including the mechanical advance endplay.

 The endplay of the distributor is .112" I don't think this matters because the installed endplay when captured between the two load bearing surfaces is the .028. 

   Is there a problem in those measurements?  The contact pattern on the gear had a diagonal streak. It was pretty well centered. Not toe, heel, root or crown biased.

   Isn't the goal to have the distributor gear sit on the machined pad in the block with a little endplay above it?

[FirstEliminator]

The trans is straitened out and now it works the way it should.

   There is a noise emanating from this engine that I cannot identify. It sounds like an air pump on an '86 Lincoln. It gets faster with rpm, not louder. using a stethoscope it seems to be loudest around the intake near the distributor. With the stethoscope on the body of the distributor you can't hear it. You can hear it at the distributor cap.
  I changed the height of the distributor gear tonight. The distributor shaft now sits lower. I wanted to see if by chance the rotor was contacting the cap. Nothing changed about the noise. The step to gear measurement is 3.048 with the endplay compressed.

    The oil filter was removed and snipped open. It looked like metallic paint. A friend of mine convinced me that the break-in oil usually looks that way.

 I don't know. I'm getting a little disheartened with this engine. It runs strong, pulls the wagon really good. The noise has concerned and bothered me from the moment I heard it. Now I still don't know what it's from. I'm not looking forward to pulling this engine out.  In the future if I am going to do this I think I need to build a run stand.

    If you run a cast gear on a roller cam, which one gets damaged? The cast or the steel? Or both? If so, how quickly? With the distributor out tonight I noticed the contact marks on the gear are still diagonal but are going off the crown of the tooth. Looking at a used cast gear it appears the same way, just over a wider area.

    Bonus discovery!!!!   I pulled the passenger side valve cover to notice some very small droplets of coolant.   What do you guys think of some Bars Leak to seal these minor seepages?

  Some moments I am wishing I didn't attempt to fix windage tray noise. I think I was better off to fantasize and day dream about how cool this wagon would be, than to live the reality of failure and problems.

[blykins]

Antifreeze or water?