TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

[Blazerteam]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Lotsa pics,and what a cool car.They werent that impressive on the Thunderbird enthusiasts when new,because of the size and four doors.I have scanned a pic from one of the 67 Ford brochures i have.Neat car. ;)

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

:'(

[Scott Liggett]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Oh come on. You're not letting a bit of white stuff keep you from wrenching. Weenie!!

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

We'll see come monday :-\

[Huskinhano]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Randal, Nice Tbird! Take care of those 12" rotors. Not exactly cheap or overly common. The Mustang guys use those calipers and the rotor off the newer Tbirds from about 69 & up for a big road race brake kit for vintage classes.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

I love this car. It hasn't been started since January, not really driven since September when the fuel pump went out and I hotwired an electric one in it's place to get me home. I connected the electric pump to the battery and checked the carb a few moments later for a pump shot of fuel, got in and the car started right up. So it's out front now for a fuel pump and compression check (to humor myself) and the Skylark is in the backyard in the T-birds old place. Hopefully before the month is out I'll have the T-bird back to TBI.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

nice to take a break on the car that is causing some consternation.... on the skylark front - if you need (loose definition of this word applies) low compression pistons (1976) - I have a complete set that could be yours simply for the cost of postage.

i'll be interested to see how you do the TBI on this one - I'm planning on using a stand-alone system I have on the Studebaker.... should be the same only different.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

nice to take a break on the car that is causing some consternation.... on the skylark front - if you need (loose definition of this word applies) low compression pistons (1976) - I have a complete set that could be yours simply for the cost of postage.

i'll be interested to see how you do the TBI on this one - I'm planning on using a stand-alone system I have on the Studebaker.... should be the same only different.

Thanks for the offer, but I have a complete set of new medium compression pistons (stock '72, should net a ~8.5:1) in the basement. The pistons are cast 10:1 pistons, I ordered Forged, but they were backordered and no date could be given on availability. I got a call saying they were available two weeks after I put the engine in :-\ If I have to order pistons I'll try for the forged again, but this time wait :P

The TBI work on this car is done. I just have to install a surge can (pipe ;D). I was having bad electrical noise issues when I installed the MS1 among a few first time round issues. On the Skylark I had the same noise issues that I determined to be from grounding the heating element in the O2 sensor to the wrong spot (grounded at the same point as all the sensors), so knowing that now I'll move that ground before hooking the MS back up. I think I'll do some datalogging of the AFR's with the carb for a bit before I pop the TBI back on. That should be educational in itself, the dang thing consistently gets 17mpg on the highway with no overdrive.

You may of seen the two video clips I made of the T-bird running on the TBI.

Starting it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvIBAqTb_-M

High idling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh50uG540XA

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

eventually I'll be ordering forged as well, but I really want to offset grind the crank plus bore (494) so I'm not certain which pistons I'll be using... I keep thinking that because the pistons are 10 in the hole there's opportunity for even more cubes.... but to figure it out requires math - which is the sole reason I became a lawyer as the only math I like is statistics (numbers lying) ;D

coolio on the youtubes

[CTX-SLPR]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

You'd not be the first to offset grind it down to use BBC rods and custom pistons. Don't know how that would hold up with your turbo/blower plans though.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Always looking for more cubes ;D :P

Well I did the compression test on the T-bird. Wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Do have one low cylinder, which is better than a couple and it's only low, not zilch

Numbered in Ford order:
1 - 120,120
2 - 125,125
3 - 110,110
4 - 119,120
5 - 120,121
6 - 118,118
7 - 125,122
8 - 95,95 - About 20% down, not horrible, the Service manual specifies within 20psi of each other.

[Scott Liggett]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Was this a low compression motor, well for '67? It seems nearly all the performance engines before '70 had 10:1.

My Impala's 383 has 9.85:1 and the compression test I did before the head and cam change was between 195 to 210. The Caprice's 454 is supposed to be 10.25 (I honestly don't know since I've never been farther into the engine than the valve covers). The test was 190 to 205.

Not sure why yours is so low across the board. I'd think it would be around 150 160. Do you know the mileage on the car?

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

It's a 10.5:1 engine. The Service Manual says the cranking compression should be around 170-210psi at Sea Level. I'm at 6500', and the engine has ~78,000 miles on it (assuming it hasn't been out). I was surprised at my Skylarks being in the 135 range first time I tested it out too because I expected a heck of a lot higher. The T-bird pings badly at lower elevation and I have to severely back the timing off. The Skylark would ping loaded up hard at 32* timing, I had it set at 30* for the Arizona trip and couldn't hear any pinging at any point during the trip, including on the track (but I was wearing a helmet...).

[Scott Liggett]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Plugs will have tiny bits of melted aluminum on the center part if it was pinging any length of time.

I didn't think about the elevation making a difference in the compression.


I run the Caprice at 8* advanced. It doesn't ping unless I"m climbing a hill with the AC on.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: TheSilverBuick's 1967 Thunderbird

Up here I can run 15* initial timing on premium and never hear a ping out of it. I can run regular 85 if I set it to the stock 10* initial. I back it down to around 5* when I'm in Vegas or CA and even then with Premium it'll still ping fairly easily, I need to pull the vacuum line off vacuum advance and stay off the WOT.