So it begins - 223 rebuild

H

haddens_garage

New member
Well it is time to rebuild the 223 in my truck. I tore off the head and it is pretty carboned up.

I have read a lot on here since joining. I may have read the answers to these questions, but I have since forgot. Please bare with me....

I plan on ordering a Clifford intake in the next day or so. Anyone have any suggestions on the Holley or Weber? I have a friend that ran the Weber and hated it. I've run Holleys on V8, but they're a different animal all together.

I like the look of a full length header (like the on Sac Vintage sells) more so than the shorty sold by Clifford. Any pros or cons to either?

Any other words of wisdom you may have for me?

Thanks.
 
I have an old Clifford setup, is a single 4V intake with 390 CFM Holley with pickup style headers they are a long tube set split into two collectors. So they used to make them don't know if you can find someone with an old catalog from the 1960’s through the 80’s (when Jack was around) but if you could fine a part number maybe you can still get them. I like to do some measuring of the front and rear pistons at TDC to block deck before disassembly of the engine. This gives you an idea of how straight the deck is. Then you can machine it so its straight with crank centerline and also set your quench height. You would want to be around .035 to .040 for your assembled quench height. If your budget will let you consider having it sonic checked so you can see were the thickest areas of the bores are and then you can center them up too. The 1958 A code engine had highest rated HP (145) and also highest torque next was a 57 so if you can find a 57 or 58 Head casting they will have the smallest combustion chambers (8.6 to 1 compression). These old engines all used a steel shim head gasket back then so figure loosing from .4 to .5 of the compression ratio with a composition type head gasket, a little milling can fix that. Depending on what grade of fuel you want to pay for and your cam choice you might be able to go for around 8.8 to 9.0 to 1. You would need to CC the head to know the true compression ratio and like the block deck it can very front to rear. On building a performance engine I would match all the combustion chambers when doing the porting work. Some Y block V8 parts fit the 223 like valves; springs, retainers, and lifters so there are also oversize valves too. On lifters I look for new old stock that are American made the imports seem to be of a bad quality. If you look around there were some that could regrind your lifters and also do a performance grind on a good cam core.
 
Just my sugestion; Start a 'word' document, on your computer."223 rebuild" or something. Then, start at the first page of posts, on this site. Take a couple of hours to go thru, and copy/paste anything that seems relevent. You can make a little effort to organise by categories, like valves and valve trains, Pistons and rings, etc. but don't spend a lot of time on that. Just combing thru the old posts and pulling out the nuggets is gonna take time. After you've got everything in your document, you can re-organise it. The time you spend doing this may save you much time and $ later, and is well worth it. This site is a GOLDMINE of info!And have fun! Jim
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

So a buddy of mine just said he doesn't think I can run my stock distributor with a Holley 4brl. Is this true?

If so any suggestions?
 
Search the forum for "Loadomatic", "Loadamatic", and "Load-O-Matic". You'll find plenty of information about the matched distributor/carburetor setup that Ford used.
 
I have read. My motor is at the shop. I have the Clifford intake at home and have not picked up the Holley carb (the on recommended by Clifford) yet. My question is is it possible for these to work together - from what I've read I don't believe so...

If not does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do? What's still available from the aftermarket - anything? I thought I read on here about converting a 300/6 distributor also - any links?

Thanks.
 
Theres a whole bunch of posts, on this forum. Just go back, a page at a time. Its all spelled out. You need to change the gear, off your old distributor, for the gear on the 300 distributor. May need to hone it slightly, tho I didn't. (Mines a 65).When you find the old posts on this, thats something to save to your word document.Jim
 
Your friend is right it is not a good idea to use the old load o matic distributor with performance carbs or multi carbs the advance is too slow. Several ways you can go. Old school was to convert to mechanical advance type distributor, like a Mallory dual point some times you can find a used one they just might still sell new ones. Converting to a 300, stay way from the early 300 distribs they would be the same load o matic you can tell by the vacuum canister looks like what you have. But by the late 1960’s they had point distribs with the better vacuum and mechanical advance unit or in 1975 they had electronic distribs. I used them all with good results. Last time I used the Dura Spark II with the stock control box on a 65 F350 in a 300 to convert it from points to an electronic. I like this system much better then the old points so will be converting a Dura Spark II for my next 223 or 262 project.
 
From a post 6 pages back; First, I had a machine shop put my old 223 gear on a 300 distributor. Then, I noticed that the 223 & 300 oil pump drive shafts were different. The 1963 & below 223/262 engines used a 1/4" hexagonal shaft to drive the oil pump, but the 300 distributor came with a 5/16" shaft that was also too long.

I could have had one end of the 300's 5/16" oil pump drive shaft machined down to 1/4" to fit my old oil pump, but elected to buy a new oil pump for a 1964 & up 223/262 engine (Melling #M67A). There also may have been a way to reuse the 1/4" shaft from the 223, but I didn't look into that. After all, they must have gone to larger shafts for a good reason, and I doubt that the new pump was much more expensive than having the 300's shaft machined smaller. Finally, I had to trim 3/4" from the end of the 300's oil pump drive shaft so that it would match the engagement depth of the old 223 distributor.

For an ignition amplifier, I used a GM 4-pin HEI module mounted on a big aluminum heat sink that I salvaged from an early Pentium-IV computer. The advantage of the GM module is that it's small, cheap, and easy to wire. To get higher output voltages, Ford TFI components (coil, cap, rotor, wires) can be used, and will perform nearly as well as any aftermarket components.
Hope this helps. Jim
 
Yes the Holley 94, Stromberg 97, 84 and lots of other Ford two barrels (with the 3 bolt mounting) used on flathead V8's also the Y bolock V8 's to 1956. the Holley tea pot 4 bar. Y bolock to 56 were built to use with the L-O-D distrib.
 
No unless you want to use an adapter to fit one of the old carbs on it. need to leave the old Load O Matic distrib's on the stock engines. If you want to use a Mallory dual point I do have one with a coil that I won't be using. It would work ok for you, but for even better results (economy and performance) changing over to Dura Spark II distributor out of a 77 or later 300 with the vacuum and mechanical advance is the way to go and its not that hard to do.
 
I have a couple pictures could send to give you an idea what a Mallory dual point distributor would look like. I don't know yet how to post a picture in the forum though!
 
Plenty of pictures of Mallory dual point distributors on ebay. The tops are mostly the same, the drives on the bottom are what is different
 
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