Saturday 30 April:
Well, spent some quality time on 3291R. New dizzy, low resistance coil, still futzing with those blasted strombergs with the euro needles, but, set for 10 degrees advance…kicks right over.
Got to loose 500 rpm somewhere. Emission plate in the engine room says timing at idle is supposed to be tdc, static 5 degrees (but the pertronix-II can’t be set statically.). Thoughts? Never replaced the throttle shaft seals...maybe that's the last step (though, squirting ether around the base of the carbs or at the ends of the throttle shafts produce no change in idle...and my plugs say that I'm still rich.) Oh well...sort it out...may be that I've not cleaned out the cylinders with a good hard run down the superslab...got to wait to finish the brakes...)
And looks like the oil leak is from the head drain tube in back of the carbs…crappy job to replace in situ…and from the oil pan area at the front left.
Have new oil pan gaskets…but that means dropping the exhaust. Always 2 steps forward, one back…But coolant level is steady, engine runs smooth…albeit idle at 1200…lol.
I have the US needles…was thinking of swapping them in and see if it makes a difference.
Update:
Sunday 1 May:
More digging around. And, discovered a couple things along the way:
1. The oil pan bolts were uniformly loose. Like some at least a quarter turn loose. So...7/16 on an extension, rear of car on jack stands, and tightened them all nice an snug. Probably NOT to the torque value in the book, but not loose either. We'll see if that slows down the puddle of dino juice on my garage floor. But as a fellow lister sent in an email...if a Ford block is not leaking, it's because it's empty...lol. Also used a pair of mole grips (channel locks) and twisted the drain tube a bit. That seems to have slowed down the leak, but still have a new one, and put it in a pan of boiling water to see if that loosens it up a bit so I can compress and get into its position in situ. Seems to work ok, don't want to have to pull the head if I don't need to just to replace a rubber fitting...but have a line on a freshly overhauled head nonetheless, so...
2. Took the pistons out of the carbs, set needles to their lowest setting referenced to the BRASS fholder, not the nylon washer. Was going to swap in what I thought were the set of US emission needles, but one had a tag on it that said "BAD". So much for that idea. Ordered a set from Ray with some other stuff...Put all back together. Idles at 1050 or so now, if the tach can be trusted. Getting there...Closer to being able to start on the brake system anyway.
3. While on jack stands...looked at taking out the charcoal canister and now unused lucas ignition coil. Think I'm going to stick with the pertronix dizzy and coil...seems to be running just fine. Old dizzy is really knackered: the wiring inside (cloth covered) is all deteriorating to where you can see the copper...the old retard capsule was just hacked off the body. Thinking it can be renovated and kept Just In Case, but with a low-impedence coil now in the car...may have to rebuild and upgrade to a pertronix module. Right now? Threw it in the 'removed bits' bin. Got other things to do.
More later...
