Success (knock on wood)!

qstott

qstott

Senior Member
Back firing, stumbling, coughing, sputtering... gone.

My new manifolds came in today from Bratton's, and I snuck away from work a little early. I painted the intake, gathered up my copper gaskets, tightened that pesky jet in the carb with my brand new tool, reset the timing again.

Bolted it all on, and went for a ride. It ran the best since I got it about a month ago. Pulled good, and ran free. I still only made it to about 52 mph, but it cruised right on up there.

It pays to read advice closely. You know that thing about turning the cam to take out the slack? It does make a difference if you turn it clock wise or counter clock wise. Now I know.

I do have one thing that is nagging me. When I pulled off the manifolds, the two intake ports were very "damp", maybe even wet. There was a tiny amount of liquid puddled at the bottom of the intake ports. I thought it might be gas, so I dipped a q-tip in it and attempted to light it with a match. It didn't flare right up, so maybe it wasn't gas.

Could it be condensation? My oil is not milky, and I did not check the water yet. Is it possible for a head gasket to leak coolant into the intake ports after sitting?

Maybe I'm just paranoid. But even at that, I did have a nice enjoyable ride for about 15 miles this afternoon.
 
I went through a similar thing...gaskets first and when that didn't improve things much I got new manifolds.

But in between I was adding Marvel Mystery Oil to the gas...maybe a little to generously....perhaps the previous owner of your car did the same?

When I changed manifolds my intake ports were wet also...even had a slight red tint ..MMO for sure....

Glad it's running well for you...a little here and a little there can improve things quite a bit....
 

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I'm pleased to say that today has another success story! My turn signals are now functioning great.

I bought a signal stat 900 kit from Bratton's, as well as some amber cowl lamp lenses and a LED third brake light. Luckily I had some wooden cowl lamp wooden blocks in my stash of spare parts. During the process I discovered they had been installed without them. I removed the household wire nuts from the wiring and soldered the proper ends and used the correct connectors.

Unfortunately when I first tried them, they were dead. Zip, nada, nothing. Back out to ramble in the pile again and I drug up a nos 535 flasher. I plugged it up, and TADA, they worked. The one in the kit was defective.

Since that problem was solved, I wired in the led lamp, and it was dead, zip, nada, nothing. I thought it was a ground problem, but it turns out, the crimp on connectors supplied with the lamp were not making a good connection with the right and left lamp wires. I fixed that, and they worked just fine. I sure feel more comfortable about not being rear ended now.

While I was on a roll, I grabbed the GPS and went for a spin. I thought the speedometer was off, and it was. It was pretty close up to about 35 or 40 mph. I seemed like it might even be a little fast at slower speeds. Out on the road when my speedometer was showing 45, I was running about 50 per the gps. When the speedometer showed 47 or so I was traveling 55 by the gps. The fastest I have had it ( according to the speedo ) is 53. The gps showed it was actually running 60mph when the speedo showed 52. That's about a 15% difference.

The previous owner said he installed a high speed rear end, and I assumed it was a 3.54. While turning the engine over twice, the rear tire 12:00 position winds up at just a little past 2:00. I checked the turtle and it has a 19 tooth gear in it. I'm planning to change to an 18. 8 mph difference is more than I expected. But I suspect it would be more, if he had put in a 3.27 ratio.

So, I feel really great about solving some problems. The car runs fine, the signals work great, and I crossed the 60 mph threshold!
 
I installed my 18 tooth speedo gear today. Speedometer worked fine with no fluctuations. I only gained about 3 or 4 mph. When the speedo show 55 I'm running about 60. Better than it was before. I'm beginning to suspect the PO put in a 3.27 rear instead of a 3.54. I may just live with it. I checked out the adapters and didn't seem to find anything that was exactly what I needed.
 
My friend bought a 3.27 ring and pinion from Bert's and Steve mentioned that they also sell the adaptor to correct for the new ratio.
 
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