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Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

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Gary Lewis

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

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Man, that's some low gears! And MPG is a consideration? You are going to be in the single digits with those gears.

Our calculator says that 4.56 gears and 31" tires coupled to a C6 would give right at 3000 RPM at 55 MPH. I don't know what tranny you have, but a manual with a 1:1 top gear would give about 2750 because there's 250 RPM slippage dialed in for the torque converter.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
Blue: 2015 F150 Platinum 4x4 SuperCrew wearing Blue Jeans & sporting a 3.5L EB & Max Tow
Big Blue: 1985 F250HD 4x4: 460/ZF5/3.55's, D60 w/Ox locker & 10.25 Sterling/Trutrac, Blue Top & Borgeson, & EEC-V MAF/SEFI

mat in tn

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

wow. 4.10 is the highest i have ever used and that was with an aod and 31" tires. did beautiful in my custom bronco on the highway and with low range would still crawl all you could need to.

RenoHuskerDu

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

In reply to this post by Gary Lewis

Gary Lewis wrote

Man, that's some low gears! And MPG is a consideration? You are going to be in the single digits with those gears.

Our calculator says that 4.56 gears and 31" tires coupled to a C6 would give right at 3000 RPM at 55 MPH. I don't know what tranny you have, but a manual with a 1:1 top gear would give about 2750 because there's 250 RPM slippage dialed in for the torque converter.

Hmmm, we may have an optimistic tachometer at play here. Poncho has 3.50 gears and the 4sp tranny is 1:1 in top gear.

Reno in Central Texas, 86 F250 XLT Lariat eclb 2wd 6.9, plus 2 Bricknoses, 1 Aeronose that's getting a Bullnose front clip, and parts trucks. Busy lads, father and sons wrenchers.

Gary Lewis

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

Administrator

With 31" tires and 3.50 gears you should be turning 2086 RPM.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

mat in tn

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

yeah, that sounds much better. is it possible the tach came from a six cyl model originally?

Gary Lewis

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

Administrator

Actually, the tachs are interchangeable between 6 and 8 cylinder engines. But the 8 cylinder wiring harness grounds a terminal on the tach that puts it in 8 mode. So if the wiring harness has been changed...

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

mat in tn

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

exactly! one other possibility is a bad ground to the 8cyl connection

RenoHuskerDu

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

mat in tn wrote

exactly! one other possibility is a bad ground to the 8cyl connection

Kicking this idea around, I came up with yet another possibility. The stock Ford ignition is gone. I wonder if that was what fed the tach. The truck came with the GM HEI clone, coil in the cap. See below

Perhaps that disty is feeding incorrect signal to the tach. Do we happen to have a pic of that 8cyl ground post?

(This pic is from before we connected the vacuum advance and removed the mousetrap)

Reno in Central Texas, 86 F250 XLT Lariat eclb 2wd 6.9, plus 2 Bricknoses, 1 Aeronose that's getting a Bullnose front clip, and parts trucks. Busy lads, father and sons wrenchers.

mat in tn

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

that hei has a tach output which should go to the tach signal wire but that should not be confused with a bad ground. a bad ground to the 8 cyl point is a different matter

Gary Lewis

Re: Poncho Loco Thread Takeover

Administrator

Right. But you are onto the problem.

In the schematic below you can see the Bk/LG D wire that says "To Tachometer" and "8 Cyl Only". That is the ground wire to the tach, and the ground originate at the distributor. So if the yoyos that put a GM dizzy in a Ford didn't ground that wire you won't be in 8 cylinder mode on the tach.

Just find that wire and ground it.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

RenoHuskerDu

Holley fuel pressure regulator ... two in a row ... inop

This post was updated on .

In reply to this post by poncho.loco

The epilogue to our fuel pressure regulator story is that the 2nd one also did nothing. 100% Inoperative.

Crank the screw either way, as far as you want, monitoring the fuel pressure in real time...no change at all. And if you look closely down in the inlet, you see a small orifice. Wouldn't some type of spring-adjustable gate be what you'd expect to see?

Because some of you have used this successfully in the past, I suspect that Holley switched chinese factories to add chrome bling and lower costs, but forgot about having it actually work at its basic function. Growing up on good Holley and Edelbrock hot rod parts since my first 289 build as a teen, this is a big change.

Reno in Central Texas, 86 F250 XLT Lariat eclb 2wd 6.9, plus 2 Bricknoses, 1 Aeronose that's getting a Bullnose front clip, and parts trucks. Busy lads, father and sons wrenchers.

Gary Lewis

Re: Holley fuel pressure regulator ... two in a row ... inop

Administrator

That is a shame! I'm using the same regulator and it is working fine. Sorry you are having those problems.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

RenoHuskerDu

Re: Holley fuel pressure regulator ... two in a row ... inop

Gary Lewis wrote

That is a shame! I'm using the same regulator and it is working fine. Sorry you are having those problems.

I'll wax eloquent and go OT a little (back when I waxed my cars, before kids and all the dirt roads here in TX, I wanted to name one car Eloquent just so I could say that).

This sad story seems to be increasingly common and accelerating with the Cooties. Formerly reliable brands go in the tank, production moved to the lowest bidder somewhere in the 3rd world, customer support offshored to India etc. Look closely and you find that your favorite old brand is now part of Global Widget Corp. I won't list the examples. We all know a few.

The answer, imho, is to seek referrals from folks who have positive experiences. That's where a forum like this one really shines. For example, we all learned that the Holley FPR used to work, but now it's problematic.

Amazon reviews tipped me off to this before I bought, but I tried it anyway. Those reviews are only helpful to a certain extent, because highly-informed customers there are rare. You do find more in auto parts, scientific supplies, specialty tools, and firearms-related products. BTW, I prefer not to buy more than inexpensive stuff on Amazon. I try to find the actual vendor and buy direct. Bezos has enough power. It's gone way beyond money with him and his ilk.

So please guys, when something works well, let us all know. I posted four reliable vendors last week, and I hope that helped some of you. I also posted the poly bushing vendor I found yesterday when 4WP let me down. Maybe Gary could post a sticky "good vendor story" or perhaps there already is one. There's a boatload of info on this forum!

Rant off. As you were!

Reno in Central Texas, 86 F250 XLT Lariat eclb 2wd 6.9, plus 2 Bricknoses, 1 Aeronose that's getting a Bullnose front clip, and parts trucks. Busy lads, father and sons wrenchers.

Gary Lewis

Re: Holley fuel pressure regulator ... two in a row ... inop

Administrator

We have a vendor rating section: Bullnose Forum/Marketplace/Vendor Reviews & Ratings. And I just added Holley to the list. Feel free to give them a rating and explain why.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

grumpin

Re: Holley fuel pressure regulator ... two in a row ... inop

I gave Holley a good rating but have only dealt with their carbs.

I talked to the shop I use and he said they get 4-5 bad parts a week out of the box.

Outsourcing, going cheap and no pride in workmanship just irritates me.

Dane
1986 F250HD SC XLT Lariat 4x4 460 C6-Sold
1992 Bronco XLT 4x4 351W E4OD
1998 GMC Sierra SLE K1500 350 4L60E
Arizona