My hope is that the delivery guys will come late in the afternoon so I can head out right away. I'll bring my toolbox but hopefully Roger can make it out with his dial indicator.
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My hope is that the delivery guys will come late in the afternoon so I can head out right away. I'll bring my toolbox but hopefully Roger can make it out with his dial indicator.
I have a dial indicator and the big wrench. I'll try to make it if I'm not committed elsewhere.
I have been going through h-e-double-hockey-sticks (my Escape broke down last week with a $1200 repair, jury selection, programmer dealings, Comet gas tank shipping debacle (arrived today - yay!) and now a broken molar with dentist on Monday and pain today). So I have not been as watchful here as I should have. Sorry. I didn't notice this request or allocate time for Freddie this Saturday. I need to (now that it arrived) get the Comet home from Burien as it has overstayed its welcome by then-some.
If you want to come by and borrow what I have you can do that, but I won't be able to attend this weekend.
As it turns out, I'm not going to be available to help on Saturday. Sorry!
Thank you, all, for your replies.
I am going to try to get the wrench and a dial indicator tonight. I'll commence about 9:00 on Saturday. I'll remove spark plugs and rocker assembly and then do the best I can measuring lobe lift on all the lifters. If no one shows by noon, I'll need to knock off and go on to other household activities.
Oh, I guess I ought to provide my address...?
15606 210th Ave NE
Woodinville
Take Woodinville-Duvall Road eastbound (unless you're coming from Duvall!) to 212th Ave NE, Rt on 212th;
Right off of 212th on to NE 165th;
Left off of 165th on to 210th Ave NE;
15606 is on the left (east) side of the street.
You'll see a Falcon in an open garage....
Just got the word that my delivery will be sometime between 11-1. :(
I really did want to be there to witness the ah-ha moment! I don't hope your cam is toast but it's always nice to be able to find something definitive when you're troubleshooting.
Well, today the "suspect" lifter adjusted up just fine!
I figured before I tore into it, I should try to verify the problem by trying to adjust the #2 exhaust valve... again... to see if it behaved the same as it did before. It didn't; it behaved normally this time!
I had started her up just to get the oil pressure up before opening the hood, but didn't warm it completely. I did this experiment, and based on that result, re-adjusted all the valves. They all seemed normal. I then took it for a drive and got it fully warm. I then re-did the valve adjustment... twice.
The first time through I adjusted a half turn beyond lash take-up. I then spun the engine a few revs with the starter and adjusted them all again using three-quarters of a turn after take-up. They all seemed normal... both times.
I dunno. She runs fine, but I still think I hear valve noise out on the road.
FYI-
I did get a 13/16 wrench and a dial indicator.
The big wrench came in handy setting the motor at TDC.
I never used the dial indicator.
Gary, That is why I spend so much on stereo equipment!
Sorry I couldn't make it. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse for me and my schedule it did. And then some. So I hope you can crank up the radio and drive it to a show or two this year.
I did something Pat told me specifically NOT to do....
Though Freddie has been running pretty well, one thing that has caused me anxiety is that the temp will rise uncomfortably while sitting at idle, as in when waiting at a long stop light.
I was randomly perusing the Ford Six Performance forum and came across this article, one I had read before, I think, a long time ago:
http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=63354
The author makes a case for utilizing vacuum advance, manifold vacuum, and claims one of the benefits is cooler running at idle.
I HAD to try it... again.
I re-set my initial timing back to 10 BTDC (it was at about 14), and then... hooked a vacuum line to the MANIFOLD vacuum port.
I'm tellin' you... [Pat...] she runs MUCH better with vacuum advance hooked up! And she doesn't heat up nearly so bad at stop lights!
I had driven her to work a couple of weeks ago, without vacuum advance, and on the way home the temp gauge reached 240 degrees at one point, and I was sweating bullets! Today I took her to the All Ford show at XXX, and she never went above 200 degrees, even on the way home when it was pretty warm outside.
It just seems like the right thing to do.
Hello, MacDee.
"I had driven her to work a couple of weeks ago, without vacuum advance .."
You lost me. Why would you not have a vacuum advance? I thought that all distributers were hooked to a vacuum advance.
Thanks, Dennis.
Gosh, what can I say?
Ignition timing control over the whole operating spectrum of an engine is, well, a Black Art. Back in the days before electronic engine control systems, it was handled, usually, with a combination of a mechanical method, flyweights working against springs to advance timing as engine speed increases, and with vacuum, working on a diaphragm to advance/retard timing depending on engine load.
With stock production engines, the manufacturers had whole engineering departments working out how best to optimize performance/economy/driveability, and avoid destructive detonation, using mechanical and vacuum inputs into the distributor. With a modified engine, some of the solutions the manufacturer came up with may no longer be valid. Thus, it becomes the hot-rodder's task to "re-engineer" how the distributor responds to engine speed and vacuum inputs. This is why you hear hot rodders talking about "re-curving" distributors, which is changing the way the distributor revises timing based on engine speed.
Vacuum, of course, is another thing to consider. It throws in another variable which can be used, as the manufacturers do, to improve economy and driveability, but with a high-compression modified engine, if not done properly, it can also introduce a factor that can cause damage due to detonation (pinging).
Since vacuum advance gernerally doesn't come into play at wide-open throttle, racing engines typically forgo the use of vacuum advance altogether. In the case of racing engines, you find the maximum total advance your engine can tolerate, then fiddle with the mechanical advance mechanism in the distributor and the initial timing to achieve the optimum performance throughout the rev range without exceeding the maximum Total Advance.
If you peruse this string, you'll see that I've undertaken doing a highly modified 200-inch six-cylinder engine. In hindsight, I bit off way more than I could chew. I've had a lot of trouble getting my engine to run well, and it wasn't until Pat Brown got involved, I'll call him this forum's Primary Guru, that I even got this thing to be driveable at all! He did a modification to my carburetor that turned out to be "The Breakthrough". Among other things, Pat had recommended that, as with a racing engine, I should forgo using the vacuum advance. However, my engine, though highly modified, has a pretty moderate compression ratio. Because of that, I felt it was worth the risk to try to reintroduce vacuum advance to improve some issues I was having that corresponded to those mentioned in the article I referenced.
The result seems to be very favorable. My "overheating-at-idle" problem is greatly diminished, and yet, as far as I can tell, I'm still not having any issue with detonation.
Whew! I hope I didn't bore you too badly.
Thank you for asking!
Are you sorry you did?
(To paraphrase a famous Dr Seuss line, is your brain numb now?)