85lebaront2

Gary, the idle will usually as the engine breaks in, rings seal tighter, idle vacuum increases as the engine turns more easily and idles faster. I realized that on my new engine, all I will need to do on the initial run and break-in will be to use my stock injectors and just adjust the displacement value and timing advance to allow for the higher (9.3:1) compression. After the initial break-in I will put the bigger injectors in. Static timing on the TFI distributor is actually pretty easy, it triggers on the leading edge of the vanes with the SPOUT unplugged, so I will just set the leading edge at 10° BTDC, I can kill the injectors and spin it with no plugs to verify.

Josh, one item, charge you battery fully, then before you start the truck the next day (or try if the battery is down) put your hand on the alternator, if it feels hot or even pretty warm compared to other underhood items it most likely has one or more bad diodes.

Considering that the sensor for the speed control is in the speedometer cable, just about at the toe board area and you have a 4WD which has a much longer lower cable, lubrication might be in order for it. Sounds like it's pretty close, idle may continue to drift rich until the engine is broken in.

Looks like Lil'Red is definitely a work truck like Darth, both built to pull or haul big loads and having the low end grunt of the 460 helps.

You are also trying to run what amounts to a 1996 engine built for MAF/SEFI and computer controlled spark advance with a 1958 carburetor and 1970s ignition.

There is supposed to be a spring in the shifter collar that pushes the lever forward, it can be a royal pain to get it in, hold the lever in place and insert the pin. Good possibility it is missing either because it popped out and departed into the same black hole the 10mm sockets go to or it just wasn't put back.

Many years ago I did some cam research and what I found was interesting, Gary should remember the old Buick Nail Valve engines, the ones with the valves vertical in the heads with the strange 90° rocker arms. Due to the small valves Buick used a rather high lift cam and these engines were saddled with Dynaflow transmissions mostly. They had a lot of low end torque. The idea is that for torque you want a mild duration high lift cam, for horsepower you can do better with a longer duration lower lift cam. Modern engines now get the best of both worlds with variable cam timing and even duration. One of the reasons hot rodders in the 50s liked the Cadillac OHV V8, it had plenty of torque but would still rev well due to the OHV heads better breathing. Best description I ever heard for the HP vs Torque, HP is how fast you hit the wall, torque is how far you take it with you. Luxury car engines were built for years to have lots of torque to get 3 tons of steel moving, the 430 MEL engine is a great example, 375 hp at 4600 rpm, 490 ft-lbs torque at 3100 rpm, great big heavy hunk of cast iron that could wring a drive shaft in two and required a special oversized Cast Iron Cruise-O-Matic to handle the torque, damn things would smoke rear tires with a 2.69 gear!

Jim, the EFI lower manifold is really just a pretty standard 180° aluminum intake, and not even a good high rise one. It isn't until you stick that strange shaped upper section that you have a large volume. I think the issue might be related to the lack of a heated crossover to make sure the fuel droplets are vaporized, and the fact that the runners may be rather smooth inside. That manifold is designed to flow air past the injector nozzles, not keep fuel vaporized between a carburetor and the intake valve. The other issue, with uneven running could be that the manifold and carburetor aren't optimized for each other, that "universal" AFB is essentially a Chevrolet carburetor and as such may not have optimum fuel distribution on a Ford EFI intake. Many carburetors had small tabs on the boosters to correct for distribution issues. Ford intake manifolds from the FE engines on are very good for evenly balanced flow between cylinders, but, with EFI, air flow not mixture flow becomes the design criteria as the injectors are positioned to put the fuel right where it is needed. Manifold designs for carburetors are set to carry the suspended fuel smoothly into the cylinders, sharp corners, or areas with low velocity will cause the fuel to drop out onto the floor or walls, this is why highly polished insides of manifolds were not recommended for street engines, all out race engines that spend most of their time at WOT are different. One other item, the EFI heads have the intake ports positioned higher so the injector has a straighter shot at the back of the intake valve, which means there is a greater change in direction where the flow goes into the head from the intake manifold and I suspect that part of the change may be to create some turbulence in the flow to help mix the injector's spray into the chamber and this angle change may be causing some low velocity (part throttle) issues.

Looks really nice, I like the way he routed everything. I see the O2 sensor bungs. When you get ready for the O2 sensors, you may want to borrow my NTK catalog, it has a buyers guide section that gives the cable length. The 1996 OBD-II system for the 460 has the right side O2 sensor wiring in the front harness since it has to go to the far side of the engine. The 302 and 351 run the right side O2 sensor wiring in the engine harness. The non-OBD-II engines put it back at the converter inlet and the wires run in the transmission/transfer case harness.

That's one of the nice things about a crew cab, the exhaust still ends up just behind the right side rear wheels, but since I have a 168" wheelbase the noise is mostly behind me. The only time it is really noticeable is coming up the slopes in the CBBT with a window open, nice deep 460 sound. I designed, and had a local shop build me a dual system for my 1977 F150 I put the 390 in, the tailpipes came out on a 45° right at the rear right side of the bed, just before the bumper area. That was so when I had the 11.5' Wolverine slide in camper loaded the exhaust was away from the corner. That one used actual Corvair Turbo mufflers on edge with the left exhaust pipe into the inboard forward muffler and the right into the outboard aft muffler. The H was right where they came together. Left actually passed under the transmission extension housing. Normal driving it had a nice mellow sound, stand on it, and as Matt described it, the exhaust would get a crack sound in it.

They have a hollow tube axle that comes up outboard of the springs. Front on the FWD is just originally a wider K-car setup (1984-87) after that they were built beefier, now a lot of the front end is aluminum castings.

Yes, but the S body (vans) are wider track and leaf springs in the rear, front suspension on the early ones is just a widened K member to allow for the track width difference.

Jim, this is why I suggested a manual throttling valve on the return to allow the dead head regulator to control the pressure. I will bet if his rear FDM is the one put in, it may have the residual pressure system fubared or bypassed unless he used a 1985-89 rear pump which should only be around 15-20 psi. and lack the residual pressure valve as it was in the reservoir/filter unit.

The thought has crossed my mind to find and AWD minivan in a junkyard and see if the stuff can be modified to go under a K car. One other thing, the turbo models came with equal length drive axles to help with torque steer, and it will still try to take the wheel out of your hands!

No, not on the brakes, just straightening out after some of this:

Jim, the K car was designed for 185/80-13 tyres, the 1985 Lebaron had them and fake wire wheel covers. I moved it to 195/70R14 Kumhos on the 4 bolt aluminum wheels. The 1985 Turbo models were supposed to have 5 bolt running gear, but because mine came with the 2.6L Mitsubishi engine (Chrysler equivalent of a stock Ford M-block), it had 4 bolt running gear. The 1986 models except the L body base non-turbo models all had 5 bolt running gear. 205/60R15s will actually rub the inner splash shields at full lock, but were optional for these cars.

I do like the caster value, my GT350 had 2° positive caster and if you let go of the wheel at full lock it would break a finger if you weren't careful, of course that was the 3.5 turns lock to lock Mustang power steering box without the power assist system and a special idler arm.

Well, update on the Flex in NC, after going back and forth with the digital product specialist, including a delay while they replaced a seat (he said center, but I suspect passenger) due to a bad motor, today he sent me a picture of the damage caused by the one reported accident. All of the pictures on their website are carefully taken to not show the left rear quarter. This is what he sent this morning at 10:00 AM: If he had informed me when we were first discussing the vehicle and even spoken on the phone, I would have asked for an estimated cost for repair, then forwarded the info to my good friend who owns a MAACO franchise in Hampton VA. While this was still going on, Mary found a white 2009, with the exact same interior as our 2011 less the power folding rear seats for $5500, still has the trailer tow and when we went to look at it, an apparently aftermarket remote start and the factory RKE system. The only issues I found were master cylinder will creep down at light application, center front console lid is broken (seems to be a common problem), the navigation and everything else touch screen looks yellow (like nicotine stain) and the right front fender is pushed in about 3/8" right where it comes against the bumper cover. Headlight "glass" is a little cloudy, but it seems to have the same HID lights ours has. I left a deposit with them, and they will replace the master cylinder before I pick it up, they will take the Taurus in trade but at less than the other dealer.

The look on the Mustang GT driver's face when it sank in that the 1985 was a 4 cyl car that the exhaust buzz gave away was priceless. Fun story on it, my son was dating a lady who lived in Northern VA. He had borrowed our 1993 Grand Caravan and been cut off at the "mixing bowl", Springfield VA interchange and had to go into DC and come back. The next trip he took the 85 konvertible, same thing happened, someone cut him off, his reaction "no damn way" and stood on it, digital speedometer only has two digits in MPH mode, but I had set the US/Export switch to Export. He said it went on up to 99, then 00 followed by 01, 02, 03 etc. I said "and?" he said it got to 21 before he let off in front of the clown and hit the brakes for the exit. Needless to say that's why the 86 has rear discs now. Mull on that, 121 mph in a K car and still pulling!

Jim, that is the exact point I raised when Gary was trying to get the pressures correct, "how much pressure does it take to unseat the return check valve" Considering that one of the tests performed for a hot start issue is residual pressure leakdown.

Hopefully it won't be too rich, original for the 302 and 351 were 19lb injectors, 24lb were in the 1988-97 460s.

I guess my Chrysler konvertible would be a restomod as externally it will just be a nice looking 1986 K body Lebaron convertible, mechanically it has a 1988 short block and 1987 Daytona Turbo II intake with a 1989 Garrett turbo, 1991 Turbo automatic with lockup converter. Front suspension is upgraded to a 1989 J body Lebaron and the same on the rear including the disc brakes. Interior will have the 1989 dash with either analog or digital gauges (wired for both), 1992 Imperial full electronic ATC system, 2001 Sebring 6 channel Infinity stereo. Only exterior clues will be 15" Aluminum wheels (Chrysler optional) with 205/60R-15 tyres and a small "Turbo" label on the front fenders. If I can find one, I will put one of the turbo hoods on, they have louvers to exhaust heat at stoplights.

So for a 1985 F150 w/5.0L what is the high side ohms for them? also my injectors are black top but that's not to say they are original. Every ground connection has been cleaned and I added more grounds to the system, mainly battery to frame, engine, body and cab. Do you have a part number for the injectors I need so I can ensure I am getting the correct ones? Ok, try this link: http://users.erols.com/srweiss/tableifc.htm that is where I got some of the information (at the time I was looking for Chrysler injector information) the resistance I measured on a batch of extra 460 injectors.

Ok, several items, first, Gary, the Ford F1TE-DA injectors (24#/hr, blue top) are 14.4 ohms impedance these are the OEM for the 460, the 302 and 351 engines use an orange top that flows 19#/hr. Second, on the 1985-86 302 EFI engines, the entire EFI harness grounds through a two flat blade pin plug and socket attached to the battery negative post clamp bolt. The plug and socket are open to underhood conditions and due to their location get a fair amount of fumes from the battery. Corrosion (and high resistance as a result of corrosion) will kill the EFI system. Ford continued to use this on the cars at least through the 1995 Taurus, my 1994 experienced the same type of no start and it ended up being the ground plug for the system. I would unplug and carefully take apart the male pin side and clean the pins then using them and a suitable (PB Blaster is what I use) penetrating oil slide them in and out of the female side. There is an orange ground wire on the back end of the intake that grounds the O2 sensor input (later models had a 2 wire O2 sensor then went to the heated O2 sensor with 4 wires). If this is broken or disconnected I am not sure what it will do, maybe some rough running but shouldn't kill it completely. The other item, I have seen many of these first gen EFI trucks with absolutely horrible condition harnesses, crumbled insulation, bare wires, green crud in connectors. If you go to the 1986 EVTM, the injectors are powered and controlled through C160 which should be near where the harness comes through the firewall and should be 4 pins if I remember correctly. The system is basically 2 harnesses, one on the engine, the other runs from the EEC and relays over the left side and front of the engine then to the solenoid valves and MAP sensor behind the battery and ends up at the ground plug. Here is a picture of the harnesses, injector (engine) portion is on the left:

I don't doubt that, my 215/85R16 E rated tires still aren't showing much wear after nearly 6 years on the front.