New to the forum, and the small ford six

[Anonymous]

I just got a 64 econoline running with a 200 from a 66 mustang. I put a pertronix ignitor II on it that I had laying around from an old 240, also adjusted the valve lash, timed it, and replaced the exhaust gasket and carb gaskets.

The engine had air injection, which I had to remove to fit in the van. It seems to be running rich at idle. The float level is good. It's for sure the correct carb and distributor, I got it from the original owner. If I lean out the idle with the mixture screw, it gets pretty stinky like it's lean. Maybe that's the nature of the smaller 6. I don't remember it being that bad with the 240. Any ideas?


Anyways, great site, already found lots of good info.

Edit: I guess I've posted here before, also need to change my sig, the 65 has a 408w in it now.

Eric
La Habra, CA

 

[jamyers]

lean = stinky? That's a new one on me...makes me wonder what sort of gas you've got there. But how's it drive - lean surging, or anything like that?

 

[Anonymous]

lean = stinky? That's a new one on me...makes me wonder what sort of gas you've got there. But how's it drive - lean surging, or anything like that?

It drives great, although it does ping under a heavy load. The engine's previous owner came by today and he said it's always been rich, and his grandfather bought the car new so the history is pretty good.

I guess I should clarify stinky. If you lean it out too far at idle the NOX's start going way up. Makes the eyes water and nose run. Too much oxygen left in the mix after combustion and Nitrogen from the air starts to oxydise and mix with combustion byproducts. It just seems to go straight from rich to too lean at idle.

I just got a rebuild kit, and I'm going to lower the float a little bit farther. I should probably find somewhere flat to test also, my driveway is slanted, Could be the needle valve is not sealing 100% too. The engine and carb only have about 80,000 on them.

I've been toying with the E0 200 head and holley 1 barrel, I have both, and the head's already shaved and ready to go. I can never leave anything alone

 

[jamyers]

Sounds like you've got some nasty gas there in California, here in Texas I can lean an engine until it won't run and i don't smell a thing. If I go rich, then I can smell all kinds of nasty black sooty stuff.

Anyway, if it's not surging, and it only pings under a heavy load, and your plugs look good (just this side of chalky white / tan without evidence of overheating) I'd be temped to set it to the best idle speed and run it, unless the smell is really offensive.

On the other hand, if you're like me and you can't help but mess with stuff, you might try a leaner main jet, and see what that does for it. Could be that a too-rich jet is making the idle mix screw overly sensitive.

I'd also get a bright light and take a look at the idle mix screw's hole and the screw itself, make sure there's no gouges that'd make the adjustment flakey.

I'd set the float height to spec - unless your driveway is REALLY steep, the carb is designed to operate under a wide range of angles.

 

[Anonymous]

Got it figured out. The biggest problem was timing. When I checked it looked like it was close, within a few degrees. I started thinking about the pinging, and went back to the timing for a closer look. The mark it was timed to, and probably was timed to in the past was actually a speck of white paint. The ACTUAL timing mark was a several inches away, so it was way advanced, like 40 degrees initial or something. As you can imagine, it was a night and day difference. After that I reset the idle, and mixture and it was great.

I been setting the float level based on a little strip that was in a zip lock along with the instructions from the last rebuild kit. I put the new kit in, and reset the float, and it was a tad different. I guess I should have looked up the actual level instead of relying on what came with the motor. It wasn't much, maybe dropped the fuel level a 16th or so, but it made the mixture screw much more responsive.

Anyways, thanks for the input, it got me thinking in the right directions.

 

[CZLN6]

Howdy Eric;

I've been following your progress. Sounds like you've made progress. You said in your opening paragraph that you set the "valve lash". I wanted to remind you that the '66 200 engine blocks will have hydraulic valve lifters and should be set to zero lash, and an additional 1/2 turn on the adjuster. That is unless someone put solid lifters into your block in place of the stock OEM hydraulic lifters(?). Anything is possible.

Also, know that the Autolite 1100 carbs are very sensitive to dirt and contamination. You might want to unscrew the low speed air screw to check for (1) dirt or other contaminants and (2) for a groove around the tip where it may have been seated too hard. The 1st solution is part of cleaning. The 2nd requires an unblemished needle screw to replace the damaged one.

Idle quality is also effected by choke function- make sure your fast idle screw and cam are not interfering and hanging up.

Finally, make sure your throttle return spring is adequate to solidly return and seat the butterfly.

Your EO head is worth the effort, but know that the late model Holley will require different linkage, and will not be directly compatible with your stock, OEM '66 Load-a-Matic distributor. The Holley #1946 does not have a Spark Control Valve in it to send the proper vacuum signal to the distributor.

Enjoy the journey.

Adios, David

 

[JackFish]

The Holley #1946 does not have a Spark Control Valve in it to send the proper vacuum signal to the distributor.

:
You meant the 1100? The 1946 has three ports.

 

[CZLN6]

Howdy Back:

Jack Fish wrote- "You meant the 1100? The 1946 has three ports."

No, I meant the #1946. Yes, it has three ports, but none of them interface with the SCV function. One is a ported vacuum source for the DSII distributor. I believe another goes to a electronic switch for the AC, and the third could have one of several functions. Only the 1st has to do with the the distributor advance.

The Autolite 1100 has the Spark Control Valve for vacuum advance necessary to function correctly with the stock '66, OEM, Load-a-Matic distributor.

Adios, David

 

[Anonymous]

Affirmative on the valve adjustment, zero lash + 1/2 turn, that's what I did.

I think there is another problem in the valve train. It had a pretty sharp tick that went away when I adjusted, but now it's back. It almost sounds like an exhaust leak, but it is muffled when the valve cover is on. I'm wondering if it's a bad lifter or something? It's louder than a loose rocker, but way too high pitched too be a rod knock. I pulled the valve cover and rechecked and everything seems ok.

I think I'm going to pull the head and lifters. I don't know if I'll swap to the E0 and swap to a DSII, or another 200 style head I have with a recent valve job and new valves, it's got a few 1000 miles on it. I have a known good set of lifters from the 170 that was in the van, but I'm not sure if that would be a good idea, used lifters on a used cam?

Any ideas on the noise?

For the 80 holley, will the vacuum interface with a 64 distributor? I have one of those in stock. I guess I could run down to the junk yard and pull a DSII and box, or do the GM module deal.

 

[JackFish]

Howdy Back:

Jack Fish wrote- "You meant the 1100? The 1946 has three ports."

No, I meant the #1946. Yes, it has three ports, but none of them interface with the SCV function. One is a ported vacuum source for the DSII distributor. I believe another goes to a electronic switch for the AC, and the third could have one of several functions. Only the 1st has to do with the the distributor advance.

The Autolite 1100 has the Spark Control Valve for vacuum advance necessary to function correctly with the stock '66, OEM, Load-a-Matic distributor.

Adios, David

Ok, I was confused, because the manual refers to "the spark vacuum port pickup tube located near the mounting flange in the throttle body assembly." I thought this was the same thing.
On my setup this gets split, and one side goes to the dizzy and the other to the PVS. Is the spark control valve a different beast than just a vacuum source?

 

[wallaka]

See the Sticky at the top of the forum for SCV info.

-kevin

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I think it's a rod knock. I used a wood dowel and listened to all the rockers, and they sound ok. Listening to the bolts that hold down the rocker shaft, the rear is pretty loud. Then I crawled underneath and listened to the bottom end, and there it is, probably #5 or #6. Bearing probably spun when it started back up after sititng.

What do you think my odds are of successfully changing out the bad bearing assuming the crank and rod still look ok?

If it doesn't work I'll pull the motor back out and refresh it.

 

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to update what I did. I checked all the bearings, and they were probably OK. I replaced them anyways, 4 standard, and 2 .002 under. I started it back up and of course it still made the noise, pulled plug wires and traced it to #4. Pulled the head and it was a bad head gasket, leaking into the inside of the engine.

I'm putting the E0 head on, and I picked up a DSII as well.

Thanks