Gary Lewis

Missed that.

I would have guessed a #4 Phillips, but I don't know.

Sure glad you passed. Well done!

Glad it helped.

That IS a smokin' deal! As for strabismus, I feel like I'm getting that each evening after playing with the to-be website.

Part numbers are here: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/elbows.html Perhaps you can find a new one?

The only 15" available in the Cooper Discoverer S/TMaxx is 35x12.5x15!!!!!!!! My 32's already rub a little bit at max steering lock. 35's would be way too big. Im not a smart man, but I am guessing you have 16" rims Gary. I know you enough to know you wouldn't go with 35's... I didn't put the tires and wheels on Big Blue. The previous owner, Vernon did that. And they are LT285/75R16's, which equates to 33" tires. But with the 460 and 3.55's, plus that he's an F250 getting a D60 in front, Big Blue could handle 35's. But you are right that 35's would be too much on your truck. I wasn't aware those tires weren't available in something smaller. Sorry, won't work.

Big Blue has Cooper Discoverer S/TMaxx tires on him and they aren't loud at all. They seem to be well thought of in the reading I've done. But I'd go to Tire Rack and look at the tires you are considering. Select up to 4 and hit the compare button. That brings up all kinds of detail on the tires, including noise ratings.

I'm not a fan of Flowmasters, and the 40 Series in particular. My other '81 had one on that 351M and it was terribly noisy. I put a longer Magnaflow on and it was much quieter. And then I could hear the tires sing.

I put my finger on the end of that tube while the engine was running. I felt no vacuum. Id be surprised if that tube draws in 1 gallon of air an hour. Am I supposed to have a measurable vacuum at that port? If its just a tiny immeasurable vacuum of air....no, I am not worried about filtering it. I've never measured it. But unless it is plugged it draws air in through a very small, metered port. I don't want the dust from the road in my engine, so if the tube is off I seal the port.

Beautiful pic!

So do we! Several times a day while we were there Lesley would say "I really like Moab!" And I don't think we were out of Utah yet before she was saying "I miss Moab!" She's talked about maybe going back there this spring. No actual plans yet, but we will be back. I just hope she'll let me go to a few other places too! I think you have a keeper there. A Jeeper keeper.

Beautiful pics! I love that area of the country, but we've spent most of our time out there on Powell and have only been through Moab once - and didn't stop. Looks like we need to go back!

Gary, Good call! I disconnected the vacuum advance, and the engine runs much better without it. I think I knew this, and forgot...lol. I did play around with it last year and I knew it wasn't right, but then the truck sat basically for a year, so I forgot that I needed to deal with the vac advance. I will work on this, but glad to know that is at least part of the problem. A friend came over tonight to help me with a compression test and timing checks. Base timing is still good and solid at 12 degrees BTDC. The centrifugal advance is still 20 degrees and it's all in by about 2800 RPM. The increase is not as smooth and gradual as I'd like it to be, so I must read up on this a bit and see what can be done with the springs. It's a bit of a flat curve that ramps up sharply at the end, and I'd rather it be more like a straight line if that's even possible. Compression looks pretty good I think. This was with the engine hot, all plugs removed, and throttle tied open. I never did do a base line test on dyno day, so I didn't know where it was. #4: 177 PSI #8: 170 PSI #3: 170 PSI #7: 170 PSI #2: 177 PSI #6: 170 PSI #1: 178 PSI #5: 168 PSI The biggest spread is between cylinders #1 and #5, but still reasonable. I don't know what is the allowable deviation. I must go read up on that. I know my 302, in it's original form was only about 150 lbs compression, but it was more even across all cylinders. Oh, and I found #4 spark plug to be loose...not sure if that was a problem yet or not. Haven't test driven it yet;). Oh, and I checked exhaust temps at the headers next to the heads, at idle, and they were mostly in the 265F range. They kind of varied a bit, but mostly in the 250-285F range. Cylinder #5 was the coolest of them all coming in at only 225F, but it also turned out to be the lowest in compression (I believe cylinder #7 was the hottest). I think I need to finally bust open the piggy bank and get myself an AFR gauge. I think as you suggested I've had too much advance and too little fuel. Cool! Glad you are making progress. And by the way, those are excellent compression readings. I don't think I'd worry about the temp differences as engines don't usually have perfect balance at idle. Or even at cruise for that matter, but it should be closer than at idle. And with #4 loose, you may have just figured out all your problems.

Because whatever is in that air is going into the engine. If you drive in dusty conditions do you want that in your engine?

Did you miss my post back on think page 27 with pictures of how the hot air path works? Copper tubing is better, it will not rust out and is easier to bend. Poor man headers ... EFI manifolds http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n40066/20180916_131830.jpg http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n40066/20180916_170816.jpg http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n40066/20180916_170737.jpg http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/file/n40066/20180916_170802.jpg If you need to run pre-heat to the air filter you can make the tin from sheet metal and/or tin cans to catch the heat and use the paper hose up to the filter housing like stock. I have not done this and don't know if I will have to only time will tell. Dave ---- Dave ---- Sorry Dave, I forgot. (My excuse is that I'm busily organizing the new website in the background. But I should have remembered that.)

Neat to find out that stuff. Now you'll have a reason to start a build thread. What'cha gonna call the truck?

Not bad at all! If it was just a year newer.....

Gary, Forgive me for dumb questions, but I have had almost NO experience with carbs. I was just thinking...if the carb was jetted for WOT dyno pulls, I forget what AFR now, but I think it was 12.5 or there abouts, wouldn't it by default end up running a little rich at cruise RPM's? I know the plugs tell a different story, but I'm just trying to understand how the jetting works. I remember having the discussion with the engine builder that I might have to re-install the leaner #66 jets when I got the engine re-installed. The rationale at the time was that with the shorty headers and full exhaust(s) with mufflers might decrease the flow enough to make the AFR more rich... And I seem to remember reading a lot of internet chatter that Holley carbs usually run too rich out of the box. Oddly, my experience has been the opposite. Maybe my engine is flowing more air than usual. Yes, my experience is that Holley's run rich out of the box. But the power valve is what makes the difference between power and cruise AFR. The power valve is a diaphragm with vacuum on one side and a spring on the other. The spring has been adjusted so the valve opens below a specified vacuum setting, with PV's available every 1" of vacuum from something like 2.5" to 8.5" or higher. When your manifold vacuum is above the rating of your power valve it'll be closed so you are running on the main jets only. That's your "cruise" AFR. But when you push the throttle down and the manifold vacuum gets down to the rating of the PV it'll open and enrichen the mix, and now you are into the "power" AFR. And if the PV doesn't open in time the mix will go lean and the engine will not want to accelerate - or maybe even die away. And right on the border line it may run rough. So it could be too lean of an AFR. Or it could be too much vacuum advance. Or it could be combo of the two. Or something else altogether. So, one step at a time......

Gary,Yes, yes, and yes! The dyno pulls started at 2800 RPM and went to 5500 RPM if I recall correctly, so any fuel corrections made were in reference to those RPM's under load.I have the Crane adjustable vacuum advance kit installed, and I have it set for maximum advance (weakest springs). Truth be told, I meant to go back and play with this some more to check and/or adjust it if necessary. I did play with it initially after installing the engine, but never did go back to fine tune it. I will check on this for sure.One potential issue I had with the centrifugal advance was finding out exactly when it was advancing. I was having a tough time checking this stuff since I couldn't rev the engine and check the timing at the same time...or not very well at least. The centrifugal timing was supposed to be all in by 2800 RPM (I think), but it did not seem like it increased gradually like it was supposed to. It seemed like all of the advance was above maybe 2200 RPM. Again...going by fuzzy memory here, but it is all good because now I have a very good excuse to check all of this stuff over to get it dialed in.Before you delve into it too deeply, just pull and plug the vacuum line and see if the vibration/roughness goes away. And, I'm glad you have the Crane adjustable vacuum advance. Those things are great. And the instructions are shown below. But, if you had separate spring those are probably for the centrifugal advance. They control how quickly and at what RPM the weights start swinging out. And the weights advance the plate the pickup sets on, which advances the timing. With the lightest springs they say the advance starts at 800 RPM and is all in at 2600. That should work with your tranny, but might be a bit fast for an auto.

HA! Well, truth be told I originally typed "Like a can of soda", doing my best to speak "American"...lol. But I seem to recall that the whole soda vs. pop is a regional thing in the US isn't it? We call it pop up here, but anyway... We buy our milk in cartons...but it does still come in a "Jug" if you buy 4L or a gallon...or whatever...lol. Most people don't hear a can of soda/pop slosh. They are usually quite full when un-opened, and once they are opened if they slosh you have a mess on your hands - or the floor, or your pants, or....

Gary, sorry I did miss that. No EGR system at all. I am running my original distributor, but with modified advance. If I remember correctly, I have my base timing set at 12 degrees, and mechanical is 20 degrees. Vacuum advance if it's working correctly would be another 10 or 20 degrees above that? Great questions Gary. You're giving me more to think about here. Maybe a lean misfire? I will check over the timing again and see where it all is. More good questions. Since I have a bit of a lumpy cam in there, it has a bit of a lopey idle anyway, so it's hard to tell. Pulling the belts is easy to do though, I will give that a try also. Thanks Guys. The dyno testing was probably all done at WOT and with essentially no vacuum to the dizzy. So while the mix is probably right at WOT, it might be lean at cruise. And, while the dizzy has a modified advance, I doubt that they corrected the vacuum advance, which is where the extra timing comes from during EGR. And too much advance can cause roughness - especially with a lean mix. The test is simple - pull and plug the vacuum line to the dizzy. If the vibration goes away you've found at least part of the problem.

Ok, I'll watch that - later. Right now the love of my life is sitting beside me on the porch, where we've just turned on the heated floor as we are wrapped in quilts. Anyway, when the coast is clear I'll watch it. And I understand about end-over-end not being correct. I get the picture, yes we see. (Sorry, .) This spotting thing is all new to me. I've read enough that I understand what it is all about. But Janey is not going to be a good spotter as she doesn't understand the physics involved. Yes, she can tell me when I get to a pre-determined spot or if I don't have the tire where I said I want it, so that'll be a big help. But if my son and I are to go to Moab it looks like we'll have to have gotten some experience somewhere. And that's a problem given his distance from me and his lack of time. Suggestions?

Agree. The ones you have should be fine, assuming the were knew with the engine.

Cory - Don't miss my question about EGR. If your vibration is at part throttle you may have too much advance, which could be caused by having an EGR dizzy but no EGR.