I’d start with that and see if your hesitation when pulling out goes away. Set your initial advance to 12 or 14 degrees and re-tune the carb to a decent idle speed. You shouldn’t ping with this set-up. Once you get the car running reasonably OK, you can start fiddling with distributor curve set-ups, more carb fiddling, etc. Let’s first get you to a reasonably stock and stable configuration. A Pertronix I unit will be fine here.
Thank you
WIth nice light springs and about 20 degrees in the can (14 to 18 on the crank), a centrifugal-only distributor can be just fine on the street. Sure, you might add some gas mileage in steady-state cruise by adding vacuum advance. Hasn’t anyone actually tried and done these things?
The worst possibility with that “repaired” distributor is that the original, heavy springs from Ford are still in there below the plates. That would make the car a dog.
I predict the hesitation will still be there with a new distributor. Let’s see.
I am with RB, I don’t love the distributor, but if the centrifugal is advancing and the plate is fixed, it isn’t going to cause the hesitation. The visibly leaky accel pump could, however, as could a carb idling too deep into the primaries, which is very common
Being on both side of the fence though, I would be checking timing, seeing where total and initial is now, then fix the carb, then buy a new stock distributor and getting it recurved and the gear checked. If you wanted to flip the order and stick a distributor in it, it’d be OK, but my gut says that slimy accel pump is an indicator if not the cause, so don’t frustrated
RASSAN68, where are you from? Anyone close that could help check it out? Omaha here
And not to go too far off topic, to credit the vacuum advance advocates, a vacuum can such as Crane’s or the equivalent, backed out to give advance at the least provocation, will give you tip-in throttle response that will make everybody feel like they have a 428…though not really ETing or MPHing better.
Please do take into consideration My427Stang’s comment above.
I went thru the post quickly so if this was said before sorry, way back when my dads 67 LTD with a 390 had a bad hesatation problem the dealer could not repair the problem. My uncle was a DSM for Ford so he took a look. he opened the carb pulled the jets and said they were to small for the engine he did not have the correct ones at home so he hand drilled them 2 jet sizes bigger the hesatation was gone. You had this carb on a 289 now on a 350 HP 390 you may need to do some rejetting
I am in pittsburgh
I will have to look at this, the engine guy rebuilt the carb knowing the 390 he was building. Just disappointing paying an “expert” that supposedly know more than anyone else, keeps saying it is something I did. He did dino the engine. Besides the hesitation, I have oil leaking, one of the leaks was from the oil filter housing that attaches to the engine, I thought it was from the dipstick tub that I had to install( was not included in the rebuild along with thermostat and housing and heather house fittings on the water pump and intake, and had to put oil and filter), he forgot to put lock washers on bolts holding housing.
Sorry for venting, just need to get past this, fix it and move on
Thank you
So it’s frustrating, I grew up in a diesel and heavy equipment shop in the 80s and went on to work for Ford, and later open my own shop. Went to college, joined the AF and flew for 25 years, now retired from military as of 1 July and have always built Fords as side income for my own toys. The stuff people bring me from experts…
One thing I will tell you is, most guys don’t understand carbs and ignition, and most guys build really marginal engines, so as horrible as it sounds, your experience is likely more common than finding someone good.
That being said, you can likely do a lot of this yourself, I wish I was closer, I’d swing by for a Saturday AM (just got a twin turbo LS S-10 Blazer running this morning as a similar favor) The best you can do to eat the elephant is take one bite at a time.
The first thing I would likely do is what we said before, use this as a checklist
1 - Get a timing light, set the initial at 12 degrees, it’s not perfect, but it’s perfect enough to rule out a retarded timing backfire/sputter.
2 - Shut it off, look in the carb and move the throttle slowly, the two shooters should give a nice solid hose-like shot of fuel immediately as you move the throttle, if it DOESN’T come back and we’ll start trouble shooting either a pump diaphragm replacement, an adjustment, or send you inside looking to see if he left out the check valve
3 - If it DOES have two nice immediate non-bubble shots, then fire it up and let it idle and see if the vacuum source on the passenger side of the carb on the primary metering plate, near the choke is alive with vacuum (after warm up, choke open) If it DOES, you are into the transition circuit and we need to talk you through carb adjustment to open the secondaries.
If not of that works, we’ll have to take the next steps, inside the carb, looking for vacuum leaks, etc, but one bite at a time
No but it will cause bad mileage and also affect engine cooling. When you mat the loud pedal the vacuum advance goes away and you have what he has now. It’s likely got 3 - 5 more MPG and will run 10 - 15 degrees F cooler with a good working vacuum advance. Performance will be unaffected if set up properly.
Vacuum advance has no effect on a dyno because you are only measuring parameters at wide open throttle and BSFC at WOT. Guess what - you are not driving a dyno.
Royce, I think everyone wants to get him into a recurved and proper distributor, but the issue at hand is the hesitation, if we get the distributor in the ball park, he can get the carb working and then a proper distributor. Did you see the pic of the accel pump? Its already seeping, although I agree 100% that he should get a different distributor, I do not believe that is causing the hesitation after seeing a picture of the carb . Moreover, if he slaps a Cardone in there now for whatever reason and shears a pin (been there) he will be in a world of hurt
I do agree on the mileage though, but I have not seen any FE run hot without a vacuum advance, not enough to notice at cruise, when the engine isn’t working hard
All the hesitation stuff is secondary. The car needs someone qualified and experienced enough to tune it without needing to resort to advice from unknown folks on some internet blog site. Before anyone can make it run right they need a distributor that can be tuned. Once the timing is set properly then you can work on carburetor stuff. I would likely start with the proper carburetor for the car or step up to an 0-3310 but that’s just me.
The one he has can likely be made to work but that’s secondary to fixing a huge stupid mistake on the distributor.
Exactly. I agree with everybody. In person, this would be fixed already.
Very good advise Ross.
I think we agree for the most part. No doubt that a sharp guy looking at it is what he needs, and it would be fixed quickly. The problem is, who in Pittsburgh PA is that guy? Driving shop to shop will likely end up with worse results before better and I sure wouldn’t be doing parts replacement and crossing fingers, this could as easily be a intake manifold vacuum leak, and throwing parts at the problem will just suck money.
Of course another option would be finding a buddy with a good running 600 or 750 and see what the difference is, I’d still verify the mechanical advance was working and set initial to 12 before I did that though
Heck I had a road trip planned for a retirement from the USAF gift to myself. I was going to hike Mt Washington in NH, drive and see family in MA, friends in Richmond, and off to see mom in Cocoa Beach. If COVID didn’t scare me I would have swung by and made a friend and troubleshot it, I’d even bring a 3310 or 1850 with me, but that’s on hold a for bit. I can see the headlines “USAF Colonel ends 26 year career and keels over with COVID on wreckless road trip” I have two to dyno in August, if for some reason things look better, maybe I will still do it, and offer it up, but right now on hold. I think a Saturday morning would have this thing running, or at least diagnosed
BTW Royce, I wouldn’t call you an “unknown folk on an internet blog” you’ve been on the FE sites as long as I have. 
I don’t know who this guy is. He doesn’t know me or you. All of us are collectively unknown to each other. Whoever fixes it properly is the guy he will know.
Guys I agree I am not the one to makes the changes.
There is another engine guy that is very close to me and will reach out to him this week to see if he can help or at least take a look
Just quick thought, I had the same issue with my 69 Eliminator. I have a 69 735 CJ Holley on it and rebuilt it after having issues for a while. Still could not fix the dead spot. I know my way around a Holley but it looks like the ethonol in NY ate up my passageways in the primary metering block. I had cleaned it completely but wound up having to replace it. Once that was done man does it run! Perfect! Stunned me but that was the issue. I think the ethonol ate up the bleed passageway to the point they were no good. It kills old zink based Holleys the new Holley parts are not zink
Do you know if adding ethanol additive helps ( I just bought a product from Lucus Oil.
I hope to have someone else look at the car and see what they think.
I did drive the car yesterday, for some reason it seamed stronger, and was not hesitating as much, (It was 90 degrees) and when i did get on it a little it is still pinging).