Jake Papageorge

AMEN!

OK, so I came across a few duraspark distributors in my attic that has me a little baffled. This thing is shorter from the collar that the clamp goes on to the top than a Windsor distributor, so I assumed it was a 302 HO distributor. Now I am probably wrong on this, however, didn't 302 use a 1/4 inch hex drive? This thing has a 5/16 hex drive. Additionally, it has a cast iron gear painted green. Right next to it was a longer 351W distributor that had a cast iron gear painted blue and another Windsor with a yellow gear that looks like it is steel as opposed to cast iron. The 2 Windsor's are taller than the other, but below the clamping ring, all 3 are identical! All have single nipple adjustable vacuum advance units only the shorter unit and one of the Windsor units are painted yellow, the other one is just plain metal in appearance. Any of you guys who know duraspark units want to chime in on what the hell I am looking at here? There are a lot of things that I know about various era Ford engines, but I am starting to realize I am willfully deficient on distributors. I can curve the hell out of one of these things as I have welded more limiters than I can count, but this short distributor with the 5/16 OP drive has me curious as does all of these painted gears. Sometimes, ya gotta wonder what these guys at Fomoco were thinking with all of these variants!

Holy Cow! Now that would be something to see! The only part I have seen dis assemble itself from A SBC is a harmonic balancer ring! It flew off a car when I was working the starting line at a dragstrip back in the 90's! I really had to take a double take when that thing came sailing my way!

Yea, on the stock "Goodwrench" TBI Small Block Chevy's, I have seen the stock rail type stamped ball fulcrum rockers flop many times! Hell, I once saw a pushrod get punched right through one (I think I still have that one laying around the shop somewhere) LOL!!! But I was so intrigued by the rail type self-aligning roller tip, I had to give them a whirl! So far, nothing but impressive! When my machinest was telling me to run em, he stated he has used that combination more times than he can count and have never had a come back. I guess I am going to see with this set as they appear to be working very well! Thanks for the input! BTW.....I have always been a big fan of the stock Ford Pedestal rocker arm for stock applications. You really cant find a more stable rocker arm! It is just that with the changing of so many parts (Heads, cam, etc.) and being that many of these are street driven daily drivers, I just cant stomach using the adjustable alternative to the stock rail type rocker. Those units that I think Scorpion makes.

Good Morning all, I recently built a 351 Windsor engine from a 96 F250 that was going to be transplanted into a Bullnose. There were a ton of issues we ran into (mostly because of supply line issues) but a few of the issues really yielded some interesting results! My normal supplier of parts could not get me the roller tipped rocker arms I like to use on these builds for daily driver type engines. I generally do not like to use and adjustable full roller rocker arms because when these things fail, they circulate small metal pieces from needle bearings. I prefer only a roller tip steel rocker arm with the good old ball fulcrum for daily drivers. I ordered a set of non-rail rocker arms to go onto this engine that had the OEM heads replaced with a set of Flotek aluminum heads and provided a fully adjustable valvetrain and upgraded the factory roller cam with a torque cam that would work better with a carburetor. When I opened up the rocker arms, I had received a set of rail-type roller tip rockers. I usually use guide plates and non rail stuff with hardened pushrods. I called up the machine shop to see if they might have any non-rail roller tip rockers available and to my shock, my machinist suggested that I just shim the rocker studs, and use the rail tip rocker arms. In my years of building engines, I have never intentionally used a set of rail-type roller rocker arms, but I never considered WHY I never use rail type roller rockers until this engine build! I guess it just seemed like the thing to do, but now, I had to consider WHY it is the thing to do! It is not a high revving engine, so the likelihood of launching a pushrod is next to zippo! Once I calculated the correct push rod length, there was really no reason to put guide plates on! This engine will never see north of 4000 RPM so............... The ports on the heads are only 180cc so it is not like the push rods are going to hit the heads. The heads have long enough valve stems to engage the roller tips of the rockers without interference throughout the movement of the rockers. Why not use them? They are still adjustable, have roller tips and align just beautifully! So we put them on, assembled the rest of the engine, got the new correct length pushrods from Trend, and put the engine on the dyno...... After breaking in the rings, about 30 5K pulls, this thing runs great, and not a single hint of a pushrod problem! I took the 8 rockers off the 4 corners of the head and they all wore in beautifully! Lash had not changed at all on any of the rockers and peak torque was achieved at 3975 so the peak torque target stayed under 4K. None of the pushrods came even close to the heads. In addition to this saving me a lot of time in adjusting the adjustable guide plates, the reduction in parts will yield an overall cost savings as we can now use hardened tip pushrods and no need for push rod guide plates. The rockers and pushrods get to align where they want to, and a good amount of time and money is saved on the build overall. I cant see a downside. Anyone want to weight on this pro or con? It feels kind of funny doing this, but I cant see a downside to this set up!

I am reading your thread and cant help but wonder why no one has suggested that you toss that tiny little tubing away (copper OR plastic) and use a -04AN hose? First, compression fittings are very unreliable. The Farrell crushing down on the tubing (nylon or plastic) poses a restriction in the tube. You will still get somewhat accurate overall pressure, but the response time of your gauge will be slow and you will see no variants in pressure due to operating conditions like variants in pressure during acceleration, deceleration and subtle pressure events during steady state operation. The tiny hoses, Farrells and the restriction they pose will stifle the important pressure increases and decreases you most need to be aware of! On a warm engine, you can actually see when the bypass valve kicks on if you look closely. Second, as you said, they always leak eventually! The nylon tubing will get old and brittle and leak and eventually, crack from vibration alone eventually! Considering that these tubes bring hot engine oil into the cabin of your vehicle, I would absolutely not use nylon! Copper is better, but still, over time, will fail! I have seen this happen more times than I can count where engine oil ends up getting sprayed all over the back of the dashboard and floor from a failed gauge hose. Having installed hundreds of oil pressure gauges has taught me that a -04 AN braided hose is MINIMUM for safe accurate pressure, particularly for a highly viscus fluid like engine oil. Additionally, a hose of this size and style will resist kinking, and not fail over time. The larger inside diameter of -04 AN will provide you with accurate gauge deflection as you will see real-time pressure fluctuations over the entire operating range of your engine. Most gauges go from a 1/8 npt nipple to a 1/16 hole on the back of the gauge to make the gauge movement smoother, but having a tubing size that is that small only stifles the normal operation of the gauge. Sure, it will cost you a few more dollars and a few more fittings will need to be installed, but i GUARINTEE that if you use nylon or copper tubing, eventually, your going to be revisiting your gauge line for one thing or another, in spite of the fact that there is always going to be someone that is going to say that they have had that garbage on their car for 20 years and have never had a problem! That is the exception! Even if it does not fail, it is not accurate and does not show you any meaningful pressure fluctuations that are important to know! Just a couple months ago, I have a customer who saw her oil pressure fail to drop a few PSI when placing the engine in gear like it usually does. A quick look revealed that her oil pressure bypass valve on her oil pump was not functioning properly and a quick replacement of the pump resolved the problem. You would have NEVER noticed that subtle drop of pressure with a tiny gauge hose! Just a thought!

My latest project has brought me to a bit of a crossroads (one of many) due to problems with part availability. That being said, I must also face some old dogma about OEM Ford oil pumps that I must now face, reconcile and act upon! For as long as I have been building and testing Ford engines, I have tossed several OEM pieces right in the scrap dumpster without even giving it a thought. I am now at an age and level of experience where I must now examine "WHY!" Today's subject......the OEM Aluminum Oil Pump on 351 Windsor. Yea, I know lots of Ford engines use them, but today, I am working on a Windsor that is a practically new TFI IV roller cam engine for an 86 F250 that is being built to go into an 85 F150. It got a hone job, rings, bearings, a "torque" cam, duel plane aluminum performer intake and a set of FloTek 180 cc intake runner aluminum heads. The timing cover and oil pump had to be changed to accommodate the V belt set up, but I am just going to put the stock 96 oil pan on it and cram it into the 85. Initially, I was going to just toss the stock aluminum oil pump and replace it with a Melling Select standard volume pump. I am finding that my normal parts sources have plenty of high volume Melling Select pumps on hand, but no one has a standard volume unit on the shelf! Everyone on line SAYS they have it, but when you try to order it, no dice! I wont use a high volume oil pump in an engine like this, because experience has taught me that: HV oil pumps on a 5 quart oil pan is just a bad idea! I genuinely have never seen someone empty an oil pan in a tow rig, but........................... Ford oil pumps are, after it is all said and done, driven by a tiny little roll pin that holds the tiny little distributor drive gear to the distributor shaft. I do not know how many of these I have seen sheer that pin, break that gear or just grind that gear's teeth into nothing with high volume oil pumps! Today, I have to wonder, why am I so quick to toss this almost new aluminum oil pump in the scrap bin? I took it apart, its a pretty nice piece! It is lightweight, sturdy, and every time I have rebuilt a Windsor, NOTHING that was EVER wrong with ANY of those high mileage engines were because of a stock oil pump failure! I have seen PLENTY of cast iron Melling pumps fail (pieces of casting breaking off inside and jamming up in the gerotors, bypass valve sticking, housing breaking off, etc.) but have NEVER seen a stock aluminum pump fail! I have taken, literally, hundreds of these things off of engines and NEVER even considered replacing one with another stock aluminum piece! I guess I just figured they were too expensive and could not justify the cost but never considered it from a performance or longevity standpoint! At least the cost thing makes sense as they are costly! However, if I have a free one....why not run it? So does anyone out here know something about these pumps that I don't? A lot of dredging the internet has provided me with bupkis in the form of real feedback from a reliable source on these OEM units, so I figured I would reach out to you folks. What do you think? What has been your experience?

Good Lord! What a rip off! $15 dollars each! Those are $3.00 each for a grade 8 bolt from any bolt store!

The situation: A 96 351W (TFI IV) engine, that had less than 100 miles on it. It was pulled into and out of a building for over 20 years and almost NEVER really warmed up (please don't ask, it is a long story)! Catalysts were completely bricked, and this engine had about 30-to-45%-cylinder leakage. The cylinders are completely glazed. I took it apart, sent the block out to be touch-honed and got a new set of Hastings Plasma Molly rings and some Clevitte P rods and mains along with a new Melling select std. volume oil pump. I have an 85 that has a flat tappet 4V engine that is absolutely anemic (all be it only having 45K on it). The 85 is getting this shiny new roller set up with a new Comp Cams camshaft that is better suited to a carbureted application along with a set of new 180cc aluminum heads with adjustable valvetrain. Now that you have the background, I am running into two problems: I am using the TFI IV factory double row roller chain (which is not a roller chain at all) which, as you can see, has the appropriate stand-off cast into the cam sprocket it to accommodate a two-piece fuel pump eccentric. Of course, I had to enlarge the ID of the thick washer and eccentric and go get a hardened 7/16 bolt because the Comp Cam stick had a 7/16 20 thread as opposed to the 3/8 that was in the OEM camshaft and hone out the ID of the cam sprocket to get it onto the snout of the comp cam with the same slight interference fit the OEM cam had. I opted for the 2 piece eccentric because the camshaft has the right dowel for a 2 piece and getting this dowel out of this cam is inevitably end up destroying the cam! That thing is IN THERE! Nevertheless, a 2 piece is MORE than good enough, EXCEPT, this thing is really sloppy! Maybe I am just over-thinking, but this thing easily has a sixteenth inch of radial movement. That does not SOUND like a lot, but when you actually start moving this thing around, it seems like a lot! It IS an aftermarket eccentric (Pioneer) but an old OEM eccentric behaves exactly the same way. Problem number two is the center main bearing that has the thrust bearings. The new Clevitte P bearing set has a fully grooved configuration on this center main bearing as opposed to the partially grooved main bearings that are for the rest of the mains. I HATE FULLY GROOVED BEARINGS! I called Clevitte, they could give me absolutely NO good reason why they did this, other than that's what THEY determined worked the best for thrust bearing oiling, but at the expense of rod bearing oiling on those two crankpins ajacent to the center main, not to mention the loss of valuable bearing material! That is not even the BIGGEST problem with that center main/thrust bearing. The bigger problem is that the center main bearings simply drop into the block with virtually no resistance whatsoever to seat them into the saddles of the block and main cap. I checked the oil clearance, and ALL the bearings have .0015 to .002 and appear to have appropriate crush, but those mains fitting all loose like that has me a little freaked out! Anyone else ever run into this? I just do not like the composition of stock replacement King engine bearings and Clevitte "H"/ King "X" bearings are just not an option for a truck engine with a soft cast crank. I suppose I could go get a set of Speed Pro main bearings, but I have never run into this on a Clevitte! The center main bearing saddle, just like the rest of them measure perfect with appropriate size and no OOR. I just figured I would see if anyone else has had something like this occur. Again, sorry for the long post, I try to get all the details as best I can!

The choke on my Autolite 4100 will close like your 4160 did, making an instant start. But I have a thermostatic choke with electric assist. Does your 4180 have the thermostatic choke/electric assist (I think this style was used up until 1983), or a fully electric choke? Mine did that a couple of times when I first started running it, and I found that my [hot air] choke tube was picking up very fine debris that would jam up the choke piston, and ultimately, the choke. Like you, I could give it a little shove and it would work again. After I plumbed in a fresh air tube that picked up *filtered* air from the carburetor air horn, the problem went away. My truck has fully electric choke. I MUCH prefer a hot air choke to electric.

6 main bearings and 7 main caps = one stable bottom end! Torque all day long and a very reliable combination! It it is torque and reliability you seek, stick with that 300! I have a 351W in my 85 F150 and I can tell you, for what I do with it (farm truck and pulling the race car and trailer around) I think if I had the option, I would be plenty happy with the 300! Now if fuel was not so expensive......MOVE EM ALL ASIDE and give me a 460 all day long!

Hey, I need to ask you a question LARIAT.... So I have had this 4180 back on the truck for over a week now and I have it tuned beautifully. In a word, it just runs....Great! BUT................. I am not quite sure what is going on with the choke. Even on a hot summer day, the 4160 will kick the choke shut after 5 or 6 hours of sitting. This 4180, for some reason, just does not kick the choke shut or even partially shut, seemingly, until it is over night cold. The other thing I am noticing is that even when it is over night cold, occasionally, this choke just sticks open. I give it a stab and nothing. I literally have to get out and give the choke plate a shove and than, it works great for a few days, and than, it sticks again. I went so far as to take the choke pull-off assembly apart, carefully hone the bore and polish the shaft, put it all back together everything is moving nice and peachy, and than, a few days later, it will stick again. It still does not like to close, even partially after it has been started. Any ideas? I have never run into something like this on one of these.

I just bought a front gas tank level sensor pick up assembly from LMC truck. I installed it and it is accurate and fit flawlessly. The Spectra stuff was total garbage! I went and had my local auto parts store pull one of those Spectra units to have a look, it was crap! I will say, however, LMC truck's customer service is not the best! The people who pick up the phone really do not know much about their products, but the stuff I have gotten from them is good!

I run the tires pretty hard (45 PSI) and I would love to switch to a 31x10x15 tire from the 235's, but the tires on the truck are like new and road forced under 15 lbs. Seems like a waste to take them off. I have jiggered around with the timing back when I first started the effort, but the truck being so heavy, the threshold for detonation on mid-grade fuel seems to be 36. I ran it at 38 and it started pinging and dieseling. If it was not so much work, I would have loved to change the final drive gearing to 3.00 from 3.50, but I think if I was going to go to that much trouble, I would just assume put an AOD in there. The good news is that school starts in a week so I will be able to go get on my chassis dyno. Maybe I can brainstorm a little and come up with a solution.

OK everyone, the new EGR valve showed up yesterday morning and by lunchtime, it was on the truck. I ran up to the Marathon station, took a quick fuel sample, filled the truck until the handle popped, and went about my days adventures! I had some service calls today, and under normal circumstances, I would take my MINI cooper because I can put as much as 250 miles on the ODO a day! Today, I took the Buffalo! I ran the truck in mixed driving conditions for 152 miles before the engine started to sputter, forcing a fuel tank switch. I stopped at the filling station and it took 18.2 gallons to pop the pump handle. I got home later that day, and tested the fuel, still, just around 11%. Weather was a little bit cooler today, maybe on the average 5 degrees with moderate to high humidity. The Results: Do the math and the mileage increased to 13.5 MPG approximately. EGR definitely makes a difference in fuel consumption! Dont get me wrong, I knew it would, but these old mechanical EGR systems are kind of.....well you know..... So a few observations citations: The Vacuum arrangement was 100% all factory! Everything hooked up properly and EGR valve was validated for proper operation. Keep in mind that these engines use a POSATIVE backpressure EGR valve. The positive backpressure EGR valve. A Positive backpressure EGR valve has a bleed port and valve positioned in the center of the diaphragm. A light spring holds this bleed valve open, and an exhaust passage is connected from the lower end of the tapered valve through the stem to the bleed valve. When the engine is running, exhaust pressure is applied to the bleed valve. At low engine speeds, exhaust pressure is not high enough to close the bleed valve. If control vacuum is supplied to the diaphragm chamber, the vacuum is bled off through the bleed port and the valve remains closed. As engine speed and load increase, the exhaust pressure also increases. EGR flow ensues! What does this all mean? YOU CANT TEST THIS TYPE OF EGR VALVE WITH A VACUUM PUMP ALONE! You can pump until the cows come home, it wont move! It NEEDS backpressure to operate! So if you do what I did and hollowed out the catalyst, EGR flow is going to suffer a little bit. OK....that's it! I guess I would monkey around with the timing a little to try to squeeze a little more out of her, but this is starting to cut into my "social fund" so I am all ears! Anyone else have any suggestions on how to squeeze about 3 to 4 or 5 more out of this flying fortress? All the tune up and maintenance type stuff has been done and the fresh air hose IS connected on the air cleaner! BTW......anyone else notice that you will get a LOT of respect driving one of these trucks vs the every day cruiser? Not the "hey what a nice old truck" kind of respect, but the "I had better get the hell out of that guys way" and the "No, I am not going to tail gate that battleship" kind of respect. As I stated earlier, I usually drive a MINI and NO ONE respects that thing except other MINI people! They tailgate, get in the way, drive like.......well......you know........