Rembrant

Alright, new gaskets are installed, intake is on, and RTV is drying. I went over the darn thing 20 times, and cleaned and cleaned, and wiped multiple times with solvent, etc. Torqued everything in the correct sequence, in stages, with another 2 ft/lbs to go tomorrow when it's all dried in place. I found some Edelbrock instructions that said to torque to 18-20 ft/lbs. Does that sound right to you guys? I sure hope the darn thing doesn't leak. And my pretty blue paint is starting to peel off already. I guess the engine can't stay new looking forever. I'll get the carb on and all fuel and vacuum lines connected this weekend, as well as fill up the coolant system again. Otherwise the whole thing will be on pause while I wait to get my distributor back.

National Parts Depot? Mustang Air Cleaner Parts I was able to scavenge some parts from a couple spare air cleaner assemblies I had kickin' around. I still had the original for my truck, plus another 1983-1984 Mustang 5.0 GT air cleaner that I was going to scrap. I tested the flapper air motor in my original truck intake, and it was no good, but the two in the old Mustang air cleaner worked fine. The part I was most concerned about was the ACTS. The one that was in my truck originally is relatively clean. I'm going to test it and see if it works any better than the one I have in my current dual snorkel intake. That's really the key part to making the intake work properly. I'll keep my eye open for a new one though, just in case. Those of you running the factory style air cleaner assemblies...with single or dual snorkels, what are you running for air filters? Stock paper style, or K&N reusable style?

I guess this kit would be for a Mustang 2 front end when installed in a 1980-1986 truck? If so, I didn't even know that was a thing. Crown Vic front end swap yes, but Mustang 2? I know they were very popular front ends for Hotrod conversions.

Why would it be odd to offer a gasket for a factory slider? It's a piece of rubber, left out in the elements, they get old, brittle and leak as Dave noted. Would you expect 35 year old tires to hold air and drive? By the way, I just replaced the rear window seal on my solid back window, and used the seal that came with my complete cab kit made by Fairchild. I don't know if they sell the rear window seal by itself, but it did fit OK. There is a little bit of a gap in one or both of the lower corners, but the original Ford seal was like that as well. I'm only mentioning for this for brands sake, in case you can find a Fairchild seal.

Quick and possibly dumb question... My gaskets are supposed to be here today so if all goes well I'll be reinstalling my intake manifold. I left the thermostat housing bolted to it since it is well sealed and working fine. Can the short coolant bypass hose be installed with the thermostat housing in place? Or do you usually have to remove the thermostat housing for this? It's a pretty tight little bend on the 302...

I would love to have a distributor tester/machine, like the SUN machine below, but it's just one of those things that doesn't make any sense based on me having no space, and only one distributor to test. https://www.ebay.com/itm/sun-404-distributor-tester/193058308616?hash=item2cf32c0208:g:lCgAAOSwnG1dXEKm They have popped up locally for more in the range of $400, probably needing some rehab work. Maybe someday if I ever build another garage.

That's a nice old kit.

Looks like they ended the original auction and started a new one with the correct truck: https://www.ebay.com/itm/193207752044 When I looked at the original auction, I was only looking at the truck further down on the page...the one with the hubcaps and whitewalls. I thought the truck in the main picture was the same one with fancier wheels added for "PFA" reasons. Anyway, it's fixed up now.

Nice old '86 F150 here...302 EFI. Mileage, if accurate, is super low. It's not a showroom piece, but it's pretty clean all things considered. https://www.ebay.com/itm/193201192406 Check out the automatic shift collar on the column...completely bare metal...I wonder what's up with that?

Ha! It also helps if you provide the wheelbase dimensions...lol. Poor guys, some of them are so robotic, they already know that the question is irrelevant, but they ask it anyway. The auto parts shop I frequent the most if pretty good, but the youngest guy working there is probably 50, so that helps.

No, I do not...and the smallest bits I have would be 1/16", which is what?...0.060"? Anyway, I just thought of one of those torch tip cleaner kits, and when I went to check if I had one, I found a pin-tool set I had purchased years ago for cleaning motorcycle carb jets. It's metric, but there's about 20 of them and the sizes go in 0.002" steps, so that will work.

I can tell you that even on a cold day, when the sun hits that back window, it acts just like a magnifying glass on the back of your neck! I even felt it a couple weeks ago when I was sitting at a stop light...it was probably only 44F degrees out, and the back of my head and neck felt like it was 110F degrees out...lol. I actually prefer the clean look of the solid back glass, but I personally need to do something with mine...either tint it, or install a tinted slider window, or install AC, or all of the above. I can't leave mine as it is for another summer.

Gary, I have to own some of this as it was me that purchased the gaskets and then supplied them to the engine shop with boxes full of other parts. However...they still should not have installed them backwards...and if they had checked the part number they would have found out that they were not supposed to be used for my application. Since it was me that supplied the gaskets, I'll take the blame for that. Installing them backwards was not a big issue really. I talked to Fel-Pro tech support and the guy was really helpful. He said it is a big "No No" to use the MS90361 gaskets with an aluminum intake. They are strictly for stock applications with cast iron heads and cast iron intakes. He said that aluminum intakes are not strong enough to put enough equal force on the gaskets to crush the perforated steel cores. The result is all kinds of vacuum leaks and related issues. I told him how the gaskets were both broken, and he said it was likely due to the combination of the aluminum intake and maybe being over torqued. It makes the gaskets "walk" because the aluminum intake flexes and can't crush them in place like a cast iron intake would have. Makes sense to me I guess. Anyway...onward and upward. I feel much better knowing why everything happened. They recommended the 1250 gaskets, or the even heavier duty 1250S3 version. They'll be on order today. Alright, new intake gaskets are on order with an ETA of tomorrow (or next Tuesday...lol). Going with Fel-Pro 1250 "Print-o-seal gaskets. I picked up a new coolant bypass hose yesterday since I cut the old one off, and last night I started the unfun task of scraping the old gaskets off the cylinder heads. How do you guys with the 4x4's work on the engine?...Ugh... Technically, I should have it all back together this weekend, but I took this downtime opportunity to send my DSII distributor out to Scott at Parkland for a checkup and fine tuning. It is probably fine, but it will give me peace of mind if somebody else looks at it and really optimizes it. (PS: several times in the past couple years, there have been old distributor machines pop up for sale around here, and I REALLY wanted to buy one...but it really wouldn't make sense for just one distributor, and I have no space for one, blah blah blah.). I've spent some time screwing around with my Holley and I think I have it dialed in even better now as well. I have the throttle plates set so that I can close them just past the transition slots with the idle speed screw. This I could not do before. I was trying to figure out how to measure how much of the transition slot is exposed at idle, and I read yesterday that you can use wire....which is a great idea, but where do I get wire that is 0.040"?...I must go rummage around the garage and see what I have. Anyway...I'm on the road to recovery here...I think. I had several problems here all compounding each other, and I'm optimistic that this thing will run much better when it's all buttoned back up (and is vacuum leak free).

That's how my truck was last year. All ratty and grungy looking, rotten boards, blotchy and lumpy, but with a shiny rebuilt and freshly painted engine bay...lol.

My 1984 F150 had this same flat bag of white fibrous insulation on the passenger side (basically, on top of the catalytic converter). I certainly don't know what it was, but I threw it out since it was looking pretty ratty at 35 years old.

Oh...I wasn't paying attention, but now I see what's going on here! It's those pesky Canadians!!! Hey, out of curiosity, while you're all here discussing DSII and all, I had been meaning to ask before about the failure modes of the modules. I've read previously that they typically work 100% until they don't work at all. That they don't display any weirdness or wonkiness, etc...just that they work one day, and then one day they don't. Is this pretty much true?

Gary, I have to own some of this as it was me that purchased the gaskets and then supplied them to the engine shop with boxes full of other parts. However...they still should not have installed them backwards...and if they had checked the part number they would have found out that they were not supposed to be used for my application. Since it was me that supplied the gaskets, I'll take the blame for that. Installing them backwards was not a big issue really. I talked to Fel-Pro tech support and the guy was really helpful. He said it is a big "No No" to use the MS90361 gaskets with an aluminum intake. They are strictly for stock applications with cast iron heads and cast iron intakes. He said that aluminum intakes are not strong enough to put enough equal force on the gaskets to crush the perforated steel cores. The result is all kinds of vacuum leaks and related issues. I told him how the gaskets were both broken, and he said it was likely due to the combination of the aluminum intake and maybe being over torqued. It makes the gaskets "walk" because the aluminum intake flexes and can't crush them in place like a cast iron intake would have. Makes sense to me I guess. Anyway...onward and upward. I feel much better knowing why everything happened. They recommended the 1250 gaskets, or the even heavier duty 1250S3 version. They'll be on order today.

Gary, Again you are correct sir. Upon closer inspection after disassembly, the intake gasket was out of place (and probably broken) from the day it was installed. See pics below. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with the issue, the but the gaskets were installed backwards...the side of the gaskets that said "Head Side" were facing the intake. I can't see what that matters though, except the gasket stuck like glue to the cylinder head, and not at all to the intake. The other interesting thing is that the gasket is actually broken...and they're actually both broken. The gaskets have a metal core, and I can't even see how that happened...it's broken at the top of cylinder #3, and also on top of cylinder #6. You can't tear them...I tried. They're thin sheet metal in the middle(core). The only thing I can see is that maybe the gaskets were not sitting correctly when the intake was set into place, and as it was torqued down, it bent the gaskets and broke them? I don't know. Is this what I get for having a shop that builds a lot of BBC's work on my SBF?>..lol.

I can't comment on fenders from that particular vendor, but I have two new aftermarket front fenders on my 1984 F150. They were purchased locally, and they were the best ones I could get (well, the most expensive ones, which we had hoped meant that they were the "best"...lol). The passenger side fits better than the driver's side. Overall they are not bad, but the driver's side one doesn't fit perfectly with the front corner of the hood. It bugs me, but I don't think most people would notice it. Otherwise it lines up decently with the hood, the door, and the A-pillar. I don't know what brand they are, but they had decals on the backside that said "CK" or "GK"?...lol.

Thanks for all the tips gentlemen! I have never been so happy to find a bad gasket!! I was beginning to feel like I had a more serious mechanical problem. Hoping to get the intake pulled today and have a look inside. Do you think that the gasket has been out of place since it was installed? The leak either started later on, or started out small and got worse over time?

Gary, I'm sure you've heard that saying that goes something like..."If you enjoy what you do, you'll never have to work a day in your life", or something like that? To me it's the same kind of thing...if you enjoy doing a favor for somebody, then it really takes no effort at all. I've gotten a lot out of the forum, so I'll return favors to the members whenever I am able to do so. Darin, great picture! Glad it all worked out OK! Can't wait to see it all finished.

Welcome aboard Gabe! Lots of Bullnose Flareside fans on here, you'll be in good company.

OK, this is good to know! Thank you sir! So the throttle plates stop just by closing in the barrels then? The reason I started looking so closely at the fast idle cam is that it is nice and loose and moving freely until I back the idle speed screw all the way out. With the idle speed screw all the way out, there is a little drag on the fast idle cam stop screw. It looks like it could be loosened just a little bit. And, on the intake gaskets. Do you guys put a little RTV around the coolant ports or install them dry?

I agree. We all have those kinds of problems, so don't hang your head. You stayed with it until you found it. And while you are waiting on the gaskets, check the throttle plates out on that carb. I think one side is closing before the other. They really should both hit at the same time so that the two sides of the engine are both running the same amount. Thanks gents. I'm just a little frustrated that I didn't find this earlier. I will also investigate the carb further Gary. I think I may have been just twisting the throttle shaft because I was twisting it on one side, and the stop is on the other side, so I might have been flexing things a bit. In looking at it today, from the bottom, the throttle plates actually look pretty good. I'm not sure thought that the closed position is correct, but I'll look into it more. I see that if I have the idle speed screw backed all the way out, the bottom step on the high idle cam becomes the final "closed" stop. That IS adjustable, but I don't know if I should touch it or not...probably not. I've just seen several mentions in my Holley books about how much of the transition slot needs to be visible below the closed plate(s). I think it says between 0.040" and 0.060"...but how on earth do you measure it? I seem to recall reading that the amount of slot showing should be "square"...which might be easier to eyeball than to actually get a measuring tool in there. Anyway...it will probably run fine as it is, and the longer term plan is to install that Summit 500CFM carb with the annular boosters anyway, so I won't beat myself up on the Holley too much. The old truck won't be moving much now until spring 2020 unfortunately.

Jim, As you can tell I'm no carb expert, but according to my handy Holley book, my 4160 has "Straight Leg" Boosters. The 500CFM Summit carb I have my eye on (the M2008 series, I believe) has the Annular Boosters. As I understand it the Summit M2008 is a refreshed Holley 4010 or something like that which was a refresh of the old Autolite? 4100. I'm going to pull the carb and have a closer look at it, see if I can narrow things down a bit. I've been absolutely swamped with a couple projects at work, so I don't get as much time as I'd like to focus on this stuff. I'll be back as I learn more. Gentlemen, I'm back with an update, but first I wanted to thank you all in advance for your help (You were all right) and thank you for your patience with me. I have not been a very good mechanic...the problem was more or less right under my nose the whole time. I do have, as you all suggested, a bad vacuum leak. I took the Holley off again to go over it and check for any issues with the throttle plates or leaks, etc. All of the surfaces are clean, smooth, and flat. I go back over to look at the engine again, and I notice that there is some discoloration on the intake on the passenger side bank, next to cylinders 3 and 4. Upon closer inspection, the intake manifold gasket is pushed out...and it is REALLY obvious...I don't know how I missed this before. And not only is the gasket pushed out, there's a hole in it...or a crack, and it's big enough that I can slide in a small zip tie right into the dead center of the intake for cylinder #3. Zip tie is 0.097" wide and 0.040" thick for reference. In hindsight, the reason I missed this previously is that this area is covered over by the electric choke and vacuum secondary assemby on my carb, and in front of both of them, my coil...so I clearly did not get in there good enough with the nozzle when I was spraying map gas around trying to find a leak. Since I did not find a leak there, I didn't even look at the area last time I had my carb off. I have to hang my head in shame here...because now that I see it, it is really obvious...lol. Oh well, onward and upward. Time to order up some new intake gaskets. Thanks again gents for all your help. It will be a little bit before I get some new gaskets installed, but I'll report on the results when I do. Cory