Recent content by rjlester

Happy to report, I've put 1400 miles on the car since I reused the head gasket. No leaks, no noise, runs just fine. A friend of mine is in his mid 80's and he said back in the day they used to see this all the time. Broken rings on top of pistons. They would just put them back together...

I am definitely keeping my original one. Someday I'll rebuild it. I had it recurved 7 years ago, and I may move the springs over to the new one at some point. Got fantastic fuel economy with it. The one I bought was this one: CARDONE 302815 Remanufactured (listed under 1970 Galaxie)

Some good news. I reported to Rockauto that they sent a defective distributor. They sent me another one, and it works GREAT!! No measurable difference in dwell (maybe .001) when vacuum advance is applied. The car runs so good now, was a couple years since I really drove it at all. I'm able to...

I should add that when the vacuum advance has fully turned the breaker plate, the points don't even touch the cam lobe at all.

Hey guys, I have a bone stock Canadian made 70 Meteor (same as Mercury Monterey) with the 351 Windsor and 2 bbl carb. Car has run great for the 7 years I've had it, but a problem has been getting worse over the last few years. The original distributor I changed the breaker plate which solved...

I have the above noted Amazon 6 to 12 volt step up converter in my 54 Meteor. Have used it about four years, it works great! I hid it under the dash, and put inside my ashtray the 12v socket. This device here is hidden in my ashtray...

Yes, when this problem showed up a few years ago, I chased what I thought was a charging system problem, but mine is charging very strong like yours. As soon as I pull the fuse for the OD (when its having this problem) the voltage jumps back up over 7 volts. I installed a voltmeter in the...

This is very good advise. Sometime in the future I will add a better ground as suggested.

I finally got around to pulling the cap off the solenoid. It was bone dry in there. I ran sandpaper through both sets of points, and cleaned the two wire connections. No corrosion was visible, and definitely no oil. Will see how it behaves on the next long drive on a warm day.

You know that's not a bad idea. I can take the cap off an have a look. There is a new seal in there, but there is oil coming from elsewhere (outside of trans is a bit wet with oil) and may have contaminated the contacts.

Car is a 1954 Meteor with the factory Borg Warner Overdrive that most of the time works fine. For a few years I've had the OD (on rare occasions) not engage once the car has been driven for a while. Usually it takes a few hours of driving or more. Then once it sits overnight, it works fine the...

Happy to report that I've put 150 miles on it since, and no head gasket leaks. Not even a seep. The engine is still very quiet, knock on wood. Changed the oil today, no sheen to it or any sign of metal. Just normal dirty oil. Taking it to the Red Deer swap meet on Saturday, if it survives that...

I installed a Borg Warner Overdrive in my 54 Meteor a few years ago. After a couple of weeks of tweaking and making sure it was all working, I bet I've only pulled the handle out a few times since then. You will LOVE that OD. My car is on the highway all the time so it is a must have for me to...

Well I put the head back on and its running. Don't laugh, but I used red RTV on the head gasket. Ok, I'm going to laugh!!! It just defies all logic that this engine would run and NOT leak anything at all. I only torqued the heads to 65 when I did the valves 5 years ago, so this time I torqued it...

My thoughts exactly Mart. It's a composite gasket, I know you cannot reuse them, in this case I am. Should I apply anything to it to prevent any cross contamination of fluids etc?