Well, opening it up again won’t hurt anything. It would hold relatively steady vacuum for a few seconds and then dump off. I should change the fuel filter too, I guess, since it was exposed to the old gas and tank.
I found this thing at an antique shop over the weekend. I hope the tach portion works at the very least.
That’s a Kool find.
We opened the garage this morning to get some stuff out, and we got punched in our faces by the smell of gas. The tank IS leaking. That’s what I’m doing today, now.
I finally felt like tearing into the kitty today. The carb got cleaned out again, and I pushed a thin wire through every passage, followed by carb cleaner and air. After that, I started on spark plugs. I got the wrong size, so scratch that and move onto plug wires. I got a wire kit that Napa listed for a '93 F150 with the 351, and it was much more reasonable than kits I found on Summit. The only downside is the coil has a female socket instead of the male terminal, so I still have the old coil wire. I ripped all the old wires out and went to work with the new ones. I went to fire it up, and it popped and spit a flame out of the carb! After keeping an eye on it for a few minutes, I ran inside and grabbed the fire extinguisher. I also grabbed the cam card from my folder and found I had set the wires properly for a stock 351 cam, but this was a 289/302/351W cam. The wires needed to be changed to the 289/302 firing order, and then we were all good.
Now I felt like I was in good shape. I primed the bowls, gave the throttle three pumps, turned the key, and she fired right up! I let the engine warm up, and then I went to work with the vacuum gauge. It seemed to settle out around 14in-hg. I also tried out the tach/dwell meter, and it works! $10 spent for the better. After getting everything where it seemed happy, the needle bounced between 750-800rpm. Dwell read a steady 15 degrees at idle. I made a run down our road, and it continued to run well. So, I went to my part time gig to drop off my MNDOT med card so I can drive the bigger vehicles with trailers (in MN, the card is required for anyone who uses a trailer for commercial use). After that, I went to Napa and returned those plugs, but I also grabbed a valve cover breather to replace the front vent that had an open hose with nowhere to go. Then, I made the car’s first grocery run in 30 years or more.
All in all, it was a productive day, and now I just need to take it out once or twice a week. If it keeps running well, I’ll turn my focus to the brakes and steering.
I’ve been driving the cougar a bit more this week, and it’s running really well. It has not died on me once after warming up, and the choke seems to actually do something. Power has improved greatly, too. My next area of attention will be the brakes. They pull me to the right, though I’ve gotten used to it. The turn signals are still not working, too. I can hear the unit in the trunk spinning, but nothing happens.
15 deg dwell means your point gap is a bit wide. So the coil doesn’t have as much on-time as it needs to build up full energy. 26 to 30 deg is normal. 14” vacuum is low for a stock 351, but could be different for your cam. Glad to hear it’s running well!
So you are saying he needs to readjust the gap and if that isn’t possible replace the points.
The car does have electronic ignition, so I’m not sure what all needs to happen with that. Also, the vacuum reading is not the lowest I got overall, it’s just the lowest I was able to get with the lowest idle it would keep. That was done in park, not drive, because I was alone that day. It first read 18ish, but the idle was about 1200rpm. I’ll tinker with it again when I have a buddy over to help. The big thing is it doesn’t leave big soot spots under the tailpipes anymore.
Electronic ignition won’t have points - so nevermind on dwell. Vacuum will increase with rpm. You will want to adjust idle mixture for highest vacuum, not the lowest. Good idea to have a buddy on the brakes when you set idle mixture and idle speed with car in drive. I have used the parking brake before, but it won’t hold if idle gets too high.
I got to display my now working hazards to everyone on my way home tonight. She flat out died on me! The engine would fire and die. I popped the hood, and I found the fuel filter was empty. After sitting for 10 minutes, or so, I pulled the coil wire and turned the key to pump gas back up to the carb. She fired right back up, and off I went.
That plug wire will get rerouted. I just got frustrated that day.
Maybe vapor lock at the fuel pump? My car will do the same thing when the fuel pump reaches 200 deg F. Once I got my overheating problem fixed, fuel pump runs 165 to 175 deg and no more vapor lock.
I tend to agree, I just had this happen to me over the weekend in as little as 3miles of driving but ambient temps were 114 or so, Engine was not overheating but running at the top end of the scale for a 20" rad and fixed fan. I really just wanted to make sure the carb was good after a rebuild and see if it took care of a surge at cruise. Carb was good but surge was still present and carb was getting starved for fuel from the pump on top of it so gotta iron that out. I suspect vapor locking happening in the pump like mentioned.
Vapor lock at the pump makes sense. All new stuff to me! I just chuckled when it died. I saw the dry filter and knew it was heat related. The water temp was a steady 190-200F and it was 95ish out. The cooling system is a 2 row 20” radiator with the fixed fan, and it keeps its cool. My dad had a 3 row in it first, but he said it would not warm up all the way. This may have been back in the days of him driving it in winter.
We ended up on the side of the road yesterday, again. Twice. I could touch the fuel pump, and it was warm, but not hot. Any ideas?
Measure temp of fuel pump with infrared thermometer when car stops. I would also change back to factory steel fuel line from pump to carb. Then you know it has correct spacing between fuel line and engine.
It looks like the fuel line is routed very high with a rise above the level of the carb. I would try to get that back down so the carb entry is very close to the highest point.
My last drive in the cougar went the same as the past few have. It stalled out due to fuel starvation. Every time it happened, I was able to touch the fuel pump without being burned (I just haven’t gotten around to getting the IR thermometer). Some parts are coming tomorrow. I got a pre bent pump to carb fuel line, a t-stat housing gasket, that little hose on the water pump, and I will get a new fuel filter and coolant this weekend. Really the one thing I’m hoping will help solve this issue is installing the other stat I have. It’s marked 160, and it does open. The new line is more for safety, as many have pointed out. That goofy little elbow hose on the water pump looks very old, so I figured that can go, too.
Our wedding is in less than two months, now, so it’s time for me to kick it into gear. Brakes are next, then I’ll check out the steering components.