High Idle out of gear -- '85 2.8 with Pinto 2150 Carb

[19Walt93]

I meant the EGR spacer.

 

[ford4wd08]

I meant the EGR spacer.

I eliminated my EGR. I had a guy at work make me a block off plate. I installed it with a gasket.

 

[19Walt93]

I eliminated my EGR. I had a guy at work make me a block off plate. I installed it with a gasket.

The block off plate is bolted to the EGR spacer I was talking about, take it off and look underneath it for corrosion before you spend a bunch of time and money.

 

[ford4wd08]

The block off plate is bolted to the EGR spacer I was talking about, take it off and look underneath it for corrosion before you spend a bunch of time and money.

I see what you're saying now, its bolted down with the 4 bolts by the intake manifold throats. That attaches it to the intake manifold.

I doubt there is any corrosion, but I will take it off and take a look tomorrow or this weekend.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I see what you're saying now, its bolted down with the 4 bolts by the intake manifold throats. That attaches it to the intake manifold.

I doubt there is any corrosion, but I will take it off and take a look tomorrow or this weekend.

You might want to make sure the carb body is sitting "true" as well. Ive seen them warp before and youll pull your hair out trying to figure out why the gaskets wont seal

 

[MadMax_636]

For the carb gaskets. Ive used these with success they also act as a bit of a spacer. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C2E5KW/?tag=959media-20

Ive been using the plastic spacer that came with my truck. I use of those gaskets (one on top and under the spacer) and bolt the carb down. Something Ive heard about duraspark mods and automatics is that the trans and stuff dont play well since its vacuum controlled is some way so people use a GM part.

 

[ford4wd08]

I ordered a new gasket kit for the top end. New valve cover gaskets, EGR space gasket, and intake manifold gasket. I'll try to get it all installed this weekend and see if that makes a difference.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Carb spacer felpro 60529 is the correct one and put a new gasket on both sides of the spacer. The OD is controlled by the computer there is a pressure switch upgrade you can add to the tranny the procedure is covered in the tech library maybe I can find the link?

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Go to transmission page in tech library and click on A4LD pressure switch for lockup torque converter.

 

[ford4wd08]

Carb spacer felpro 60529 is the correct one and put a new gasket on both sides of the spacer. The OD is controlled by the computer there is a pressure switch upgrade you can add to the tranny the procedure is covered in the tech library maybe I can find the link?

Go to transmission page in tech library and click on A4LD pressure switch for lockup torque converter.

The '85 to mid year '87 A4LD's OD was not controlled by computer. I have a manual switch wired up for the lock up for now, and it works. There is no OD shift after that and there should be. I'm going to take it back to the trans shop and let them figure it out.

I can't remember if I had a gasket on both sides of the spacer, but I'll try that before I go too deep into the intake manifold. I believe it is 60529. I know I ordered one when I did the swap.

 

[ford4wd08]

Question for anyone who has done the duraspark conversion, did you hook up the vacuum advance on the distributor? I believe I did. I am thinking about unhooking it for now and plugging it on the carb to see what that does on how the engine runs.

Also, when I first take off in the morning, if I am not careful from a stop, I can smoother out the engine and it will die. It doesn't seem flooded, it could be the vacuum leak I need to chase down. I plan on working on this beast this weekend.

On a side note, I believe my OD is magically working somehow.... I think they could have overfilled the trans when they put fluid in it. It has lost some through the vent after being parked and normal driving. I'm basically daily driving this rig on my commute to work now (35 miles one way).

Trying to shake out all of the bugs.

 

[Shran]

Question for anyone who has done the duraspark conversion, did you hook up the vacuum advance on the distributor? I believe I did. I am thinking about unhooking it for now and plugging it on the carb to see what that does on how the engine runs.

Also, when I first take off in the morning, if I am not careful from a stop, I can smoother out the engine and it will die. It doesn't seem flooded, it could be the vacuum leak I need to chase down. I plan on working on this beast this weekend.

Is your choke not closing all the way? That could explain your cold engine issues...

I had the vacuum advance hooked up on all of the Duraspark conversions I did years ago. You want it hooked up and working, otherwise you have no spark advance.

This reminds me of all the carb issues I had with my old '85 F250. That stupid thing was always not running well, leaking, backfiring... didn't help that it sat for months at a time, but it seemed like I would get it dialed in and running good and then I'd have to tinker with it again in a couple months. The worst one was when the Carter carb started giving me fits and I rebuilt a stock Holley for it... So much worse, ran like ass and backfired through the carb on the highway. Rebuilt the Carter and life was good. It was always simple, easy to fix things but it happened so often...do not miss that.

 

[ford4wd08]

Is your choke not closing all the way? That could explain your cold engine issues...

I had the vacuum advance hooked up on all of the Duraspark conversions I did years ago. You want it hooked up and working, otherwise you have no spark advance.

This reminds me of all the carb issues I had with my old '85 F250. That stupid thing was always not running well, leaking, backfiring... didn't help that it sat for months at a time, but it seemed like I would get it dialed in and running good and then I'd have to tinker with it again in a couple months. The worst one was when the Carter carb started giving me fits and I rebuilt a stock Holley for it... So much worse, ran like ass and backfired through the carb on the highway. Rebuilt the Carter and life was good. It was always simple, easy to fix things but it happened so often...do not miss that.

I do have mechanical spark advance with this distributor.

I did find my distributor is not as tight as I last left it.

I've got some trouble shooting to do this weekend.

I think I need to move the accelerator pump one hole on the linkage and I need to get my timing set correctly. Then get a vacuum gage on it and see what I really have.

 

[ford4wd08]

Oh and choke is set correctly. It cold starts great. It's the rest of the stuff I just need to go back threw.

 

[franklin2]

I have the vacuum advance hooked up on my conversion. I am using the original computer controlled carb. I found a port the factory had blocked off that was the proper ported vacuum port. I would make sure you are using ported vacuum and at a normal idle there is no vacuum on it.

The vacuum on this 2.8 is interesting though. I now know why the older rangers had all mechanical controls on the HVAC. I put a later model vacuum controlled heater core bypass valve on my 2.8 BII because it would leak heat into the cab during the summer. It seemed to work well at times, and then it wouldn't. Come to find out, I dog the 2.8 so much, that have no vacuum to operate the valve. I ended up having to mechanically shut the valve and it works great and really cooled the cabin off. I am guessing the little 2.3 4 cylinder would be even worse. To get anywhere you need the carb wide open, so no vacuum for anything like that to work.