Duraspark conversion.

[franklin2]

Clothes dryer aluminum hose may work.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Clothes dryer is 4". I think there is also 3" and 2", but you would have to go to an hvac supplier most likely.

 

[Bronco648]

Seems odd that this hose was attached to the radiator support and then was connected to the air cleaner snorkel. To me, that's kind of a "ram air" effect and I didn't think carbs liked that. I thought they preferred to suck air as as required by the motor's RPM, no?

 

[ford4wd08]

Seems odd that this hose was attached to the radiator support and then was connected to the air cleaner snorkel. To me, that's kind of a "ram air" effect and I didn't think carbs liked that. I thought they preferred to suck air as as required by the motor's RPM, no?

From my understanding, an open element air cleaner does not work well at speed do to all of the turbulent air flow under the hood. That is the reason for snorkel to the front of the vehicle, it allows more laminar flow of air to the air cleaner and the carb will only take as much as the throttle plates are open.

 

[Bronco648]

What's everyone doing for a muffler? I see that the Flowmaster 40 Series seems popular (y-pipe to muffler to side exit tailpipe is all I plan to install).

2" tubing?

 

[franklin2]

Seems odd that this hose was attached to the radiator support and then was connected to the air cleaner snorkel. To me, that's kind of a "ram air" effect and I didn't think carbs liked that. I thought they preferred to suck air as as required by the motor's RPM, no?

There idea was more consistent air temperature entering the carb. Along with the hose to the radiator support, you will notice a pipe welded to the air cleaner snorkel underneath. That went to a heat stove around the exhaust manifold. There is a air door in the snorkel that directs air either from heat stove or the radiator support inlet. This air door in the snorkel is controlled by vacuum from a temperature sensor in the air cleaner.

I am sure it varied some, but most of these temperature sensors tried to keep the incoming air around 100 degrees give or take. It would mix the outside air and the heat stove air together in varying amounts to try and achieve this. By keeping the incoming air one temp, they are able to tune the carb more precise, leaning it out for emissions purposes.

 

[Bronco648]

Sorry for the delay in updates, my mom is not well and I needed to take a trip to NorCal.

OK, so, lots of progress. The engine is running with ~60 PSI oil pressure. I installed a Bosch mechanical gauge. Not sure what was up with the dash gauge and/or two pressure sending units. Regardless, I have oil pressure.

I ended up going from the y-pipe (2.5" opening), reducing to 2.25" pipe into a Cherry Bomb Salute (SA1255) muffler. I love the sound. My wife thinks it's loud (she never heard the GT-350 race car with 3" straight pipes.....). I still need to figure out how to support the muffler using the original muffler hanger bracket (the one with the dual rubber isolators). I also need to source 90* and/or 45* bends to route the exhaust out from under the truck. I think if I were to do it again, I'd go straight 2.5" pipe and use a muffler with center in/center out (the SA1255 is center in/offset out). The Salute series is reversible which is kinda cool. So, I have the muffler canted a little to better fit under the truck and facilitate the tail pipe clearing (under) the frame.

I ran the engine long enough today to test the electric fan but I think I'm a little low on coolant now that the engine has had an opportunity to come up to temperature and move coolant thru the system.

2 Questions:

1 - I set the timing so that the engine idles nicely. When installing the distributor the shop manual says to find TDC as indicated by the pointer. I then marked 12* BTDC on the harmonic balancer with some (light blue) nail polish (wink). But, the engine dies when I try to turn the distributor so that the 12* mark lines up with the pointer. HOWEVER, it idles nicely when the 12* mark is right at the "tunnel sight" (like looking down the barrel of my .22 Winchester). After hooking up the vacuum advance line, it revs great. Is the 'tunnel sight' the correct indicator to use when timing the engine?

2 - The tranny (A4LD) is newly rebuilt and the torque converter is new. I find differing capacities for (re)filling the tranny fluid. So far, the system has 9 quarts in it. I have two more quarts on-hand. Does anyone know the actual capacity of the transmission system (with o.e. cooler)?

TIA

 

[19Walt93]

There idea was more consistent air temperature entering the carb. Along with the hose to the radiator support, you will notice a pipe welded to the air cleaner snorkel underneath. That went to a heat stove around the exhaust manifold. There is a air door in the snorkel that directs air either from heat stove or the radiator support inlet. This air door in the snorkel is controlled by vacuum from a temperature sensor in the air cleaner.

I am sure it varied some, but most of these temperature sensors tried to keep the incoming air around 100 degrees give or take. It would mix the outside air and the heat stove air together in varying amounts to try and achieve this. By keeping the incoming air one temp, they are able to tune the carb more precise, leaning it out for emissions purposes.

Nope. The hot air tube from the manifold was to prevent carb icing and to keep the fuel from condensing into droplets during cold weather. In the late 70's/early 80's if the air cleaner vacuum motor failed and vehicles drew in ice cold winter air they ran like crap. A 78-80 Fiesta with a dead vacuum motor would barely go 50 mph, sucked fuel like a big V8, and the cat would glow red form unburned fuel. Once the air is 50 degrees or warmer the hot air pickup isn.t needed.
I always use a duct to bring in cooler air instead of running an open air cleaner. My favorite air cleaner is all aluminum except the snorkels and was used on a bunch of late 70's/early 80's cars and trucks.
This is the one on my Mustang, they're usually kind of dull bare aluminum but I polished it up. The right side air duct is original, the left side duct and convolute tubing came off an 85 Crown Vic with CFI. The upper lid from a CFI car will fit, the lower air cleaner body won't because the CFI was slightly bigger diameter than a carb.

 

[franklin2]

Nope. The hot air tube from the manifold was to prevent carb icing and to keep the fuel from condensing into droplets during cold weather. In the late 70's/early 80's if the air cleaner vacuum motor failed and vehicles drew in ice cold winter air they ran like crap. A 78-80 Fiesta with a dead vacuum motor would barely go 50 mph, sucked fuel like a big V8, and the cat would glow red form unburned fuel. Once the air is 50 degrees or warmer the hot air pickup isn.t needed.
I always use a duct to bring in cooler air instead of running an open air cleaner. My favorite air cleaner is all aluminum except the snorkels and was used on a bunch of late 70's/early 80's cars and trucks.
This is the one on my Mustang, they're usually kind of dull bare aluminum but I polished it up. The right side air duct is original, the left side duct and convolute tubing came off an 85 Crown Vic with CFI. The upper lid from a CFI car will fit, the lower air cleaner body won't because the CFI was slightly bigger diameter than a carb.View attachment 83886

The heat riser in the exhaust manifold was to combat carb icing and fuel drop out in the intake manifold also. Both systems were designed to get the engine up to temp as quickly as possible for emissions. I agree, the heated intake system combatted carb icing, but that was not it's sole function.

 

[Uncle Gump]

The "tunnel" site was for use with a timing light or oscilloscope that used a magnetic pick up to read timing. I think there should be another notch or pointer for use with a regular timing light.

 

[franklin2]

Sorry for the delay in updates, my mom is not well and I needed to take a trip to NorCal.

OK, so, lots of progress. The engine is running with ~60 PSI oil pressure. I installed a Bosch mechanical gauge. Not sure what was up with the dash gauge and/or two pressure sending units. Regardless, I have oil pressure.

I ended up going from the y-pipe (2.5" opening), reducing to 2.25" pipe into a Cherry Bomb Salute (SA1255) muffler. I love the sound. My wife thinks it's loud (she never heard the GT-350 race car with 3" straight pipes.....). I still need to figure out how to support the muffler using the original muffler hanger bracket (the one with the dual rubber isolators). I also need to source 90* and/or 45* bends to route the exhaust out from under the truck. I think if I were to do it again, I'd go straight 2.5" pipe and use a muffler with center in/center out (the SA1255 is center in/offset out). The Salute series is reversible which is kinda cool. So, I have the muffler canted a little to better fit under the truck and facilitate the tail pipe clearing (under) the frame.

I ran the engine long enough today to test the electric fan but I think I'm a little low on coolant now that the engine has had an opportunity to come up to temperature and move coolant thru the system.

2 Questions:

1 - I set the timing so that the engine idles nicely. When installing the distributor the shop manual says to find TDC as indicated by the pointer. I then marked 12* BTDC on the harmonic balancer with some (light blue) nail polish (wink). But, the engine dies when I try to turn the distributor so that the 12* mark lines up with the pointer. HOWEVER, it idles nicely when the 12* mark is right at the "tunnel sight" (like looking down the barrel of my .22 Winchester). After hooking up the vacuum advance line, it revs great. Is the 'tunnel sight' the correct indicator to use when timing the engine?

2 - The tranny (A4LD) is newly rebuilt and the torque converter is new. I find differing capacities for (re)filling the tranny fluid. So far, the system has 9 quarts in it. I have two more quarts on-hand. Does anyone know the actual capacity of the transmission system (with o.e. cooler)?

TIA

I would set the timing by how it runs best. The reason I say this, I have had my 2.8 apart a couple of times, and the last time I had it apart, noticed the woodruff key that goes into the front of the crankshaft had fallen out at some previous time, or when I took it apart. So I rounded up another one and I tried to get it into place, it would have been easier before I put the timing cover back on. But once again, it fell into the oil pan. So I gave up and lined it up as good as I could by eye and pressed it back in place.

If someone purposely or accidentally did the same thing to your engine, then your marks could be off. Even the factory marks when you use the key can be off a little bit. There are no balance weights on these engines, so it doesn't really matter about the damper position, except it will throw the timing marks off.

 

[Bronco648]

I would set the timing by how it runs best. The reason I say this, I have had my 2.8 apart a couple of times, and the last time I had it apart, noticed the woodruff key that goes into the front of the crankshaft had fallen out at some previous time, or when I took it apart. So I rounded up another one and I tried to get it into place, it would have been easier before I put the timing cover back on. But once again, it fell into the oil pan. So I gave up and lined it up as good as I could by eye and pressed it back in place.

If someone purposely or accidentally did the same thing to your engine, then your marks could be off. Even the factory marks when you use the key can be off a little bit. There are no balance weights on these engines, so it doesn't really matter about the damper position, except it will throw the timing marks off.

This engine is freshly rebuilt by a known remanufacturer (Team Blitz) that vintage races Capris. That doesn't mean that something isn't perfect with the key in the crank snout. I did have to source a different harmonic balancer as the original one had a chunk missing (broken) which would have caused it to throw the alternator belt. So, maybe the harmonic balancer isn't quite right?

The "tunnel" site was for use with a timing light or oscilloscope that used a magnetic pick up to read timing. I think there should be another notch or pointer for use with a regular timing light.

There appears to be two timing indicators that bolt to the front cover of the engine; one is a true pointer (and sharp enough to break skin). The other one is the tunnel. Standing by the passenger side fender, the pointer is above the tunnel by ~2".

I tried to set the timing by turning the distributor so the 12* mark, on the harmonic balancer, was near the pointer but the engine won't run, it dies. With the 12* timing mark at the tunnel, it idles/revs nicely. I did set the timing with the vacuum advance line disconnected and the side carb port capped. Should the vacuum port on the distributor be capped, too?

 

[Uncle Gump]

As long as the vacuum advance dash pot had no vacuum and the vacuum source leak you created by disconnecting it was capped... you should be OK.

In the end... wherever it runs best with no pre-ignition/detonation and best overall drivability... you're probably good. Watch your temperatures and listen to your engine...

 

[19Walt93]

The heat riser in the exhaust manifold was to combat carb icing and fuel drop out in the intake manifold also. Both systems were designed to get the engine up to temp as quickly as possible for emissions. I agree, the heated intake system combatted carb icing, but that was not it's sole function.

I know, I'm old enough to have worked on vehicles with heat risers, no Ranger ever had one.

 

[Bronco648]

I know, I'm old enough to have worked on vehicles with heat risers, no Ranger ever had one.

Not sure about Rangers but my 2150 has a heat riser port (which is caped). I do have an electric choke (which I need to wire).

And, I had a '79 Fiesta with a Webber carb that would ice up to the point that it would quit running, on the expressway, but on local roads, it was OK.