57 Wagon Holiday Thrash

[mrocketscience]

I ran across this really cool 57 wagon while at the March Meet. It belongs to a pin striper named Diablo. Apparently the front end was done by Bill Hines way back in the early 60's. I think it's way cool!

[mrocketscience]

Not a lot to report on my wagon... Just haven't had a lot of time. But we're getting there slowly but surely. I fabricated a new battery tray so I could get 12 volts to help me ID some of the wiring. I installed the new ignition (new distributor w/ electronic ignition and coil), and a brand new carb. Cool story about the carb. I had a Holley 600 I bought in 2006 to use on the old 312. When I pulled it off, a lot of the plating on the bowls was just flaking off in chunks... inside and out. Not good. My wife says "huh... shouldn't do that, let me get in touch with Holley". Turns out there was a recall on the carbs made in that time period. The result is, I shipped them my old carb, they shipped me a brand new one! I'm real happy with that.. Soon as I get another free weekend I'll install the electric fuel pump and relay harness, maybe see if this thing will fire up!

[mrocketscience]

Success!... Well, partially anyway. The engine fired off finally on Saturday, and I fixed the water leaks, had 60lbs of oil pressure, no oil pouring out anywhere. Thats all good, but unfortunately it seems to only run on about 4-5 cylinders so sounds REALLY bad! And it won't stay running. So, I have to diagnose whats at fault ignition wise. I'll first try a different plug wire set, and if that doesn't fix it I'm going to have to look at the distributor. I've gone over the firing order, set #1 at TDC( using the high tech coat hanger wire down the sprk plug hole method) so I'm resonably sure the timing is fairly close. I'll get a chance to mess with it a bit again next weekend so I'll see if I can sort it out.

[Russell]

Sorry to hear its not hitting on all eight, I am sure you already check, but what cam does it have? Could it have the HO/351 firing order?

[mrocketscience]

I have a Lunati Bracketmaster cam in it. I checked the cam card on Saturday, because I thought of the same thing, but checking the part number it says it's for 221-302. So, unless I got the wrong cam in the box I believe it's the correct one. I could rewire it to the 351 firing order and see what happens. Or, pull the valve covers and rotate the motor and verify that way.

[Huskinhano]

I'd say that's a possibility. The 5.0 (302) did use the 351W firing order...maybe the Lunati cam is using the 5.0 firing order for their "221-302" cams

[mrocketscience]

Well, I feel like a moron. The motor runs great today. Did you know that if you don't plug that big hole on the back of a Performer RPM manifold that the engine will run really shitty? Yeah, I knew that too, but somehow overlooked it. Once I did that, it fired right up and settled into a nice lopey idle...sounds sweet! Now, got to finish the new cam break in, fab up the shift linkage to the old column shifter, install the fan, and get it to tha muffler shop. I'm debating on driving it to the shop with open headers (risky) or loading it on the trailer and taking it that way. Of course, the gas tank still needs fixing too. Anyway, one more hurdle checked off the list, I'll be cruizin' this thing again soon!

[milner351]

SWEEET!

At least you remembered the oil galley plug under the intake - and didn't wipe out the main bearings like I did.

[mrocketscience]

Ouch! Yeah it's got 60 pounds at idle like it should, so I think its all good there.

[milner351]

Nice - can't wait to hear about your first ride with all the upgrades.

[mrocketscience]

We have progress! I fabbed up the shift linkage to the old column shifter( with my recently acquired Lincoln Mig Pac 10 rig). Burning metal is fun! So, the car will now move under it's own power. I also installed an aluminum flex fan (decided not to go with the electric fan for now). After reassembly with my now extremely bloody hands (man, those blades are SHARP!) I fired it up and checked for forward and backward movement. After shutting it off, looks like I have a small oil leak at the bellhousing.. major bummer, but I'm not gonna pull everything out again any time soon unless its just pouring out. Well, the old 312 had a bad rear main leak so I guess I'm used to it. Break out the drip pan again.
Anyway, next up is a trip to the muffler shop in a week or 2.
This weekend is busy with a new project. A family friend passed away recently and left us a car. So, we have to go up to Frazier Park (up on the Grapevine for you SoCal dudes) and trailer back a 1969 Pontiac Catalina convertible that hasn't run in 15 years. I'm told that he hit a rock and holed the oil pan and then just parked it. Supposed to not have any engine damage. We'll see. I'm more worried about rusty floors, but hey, it's free.
I'll start a new thread about it when I get it. I still need to replace the rear end in my Mustang, so now I've got projects piling up. Man, I need some more money.....

[mrocketscience]

Ok! After a trip to Irwindale Muffler yesterday, it's now drivable. It still needs a little tuning, part throttle cruising is not clean, it has a random miss. Don't know if it's ignition, carb or timing. Since I don't have a timing pointer it's kind of a guess on timing. Starts good and idles fine. I drove it around a bit, seems to have good power, nice throttle response. The TCI convertor makes it launch pretty peppy ;) The rear main leak is gonna have to be fixed. Huge bummer, I don't even want to think about pulling it out again. Anyone ever had any success replacing a Ford main seal without pulling the engine?
Anyway, here's some cell phone video of the car...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zl9W...ature=youtu.be

[Scott Liggett]

If there is like a miss or a it seems to be cutting out at cruise under light throttle, it could be lean on the primary side. Also check the plug wires. One could be misfiring to something besides the plug. Run it in a very dark area and you'll see a neat light show.

[milner351]

Is the engine a roller block with a one piece rear main seal?

I think it would be easier to drop the transmission to change the rear main then pulling the engine.

Make sure it's not another leak going down the back of the engine and dripping off the bottom of the bellhousing.

If you get frustrated with the timing by ear - you can always find TDC on #1 with a piston stop - then find / build a timing pointer that will work. Start with 10 BTDC and go from there. How's the vac advance hooked up?

[mrocketscience]

It's not a roller block, it's a 77 w/ 2 piece seal. It doesn't seam to leak with the engine running, but that's not 100% for sure. It makes about a 4 inch puddle when you shut it off. I don't have a PCV system on it, just breathers on both valve covers. Maybe it has too much internal pressure (I know, I'm grasping at straws!) As far as the miss, I'm going to try upping the primaries a size or two on the Holley 600, see if that makes any difference. For vacuum advance, it's hooked to the port on the metering block on the carb. I could pull that off and see what happens. Lots of stuff to try! Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it runs, it's a massive impovement over the old Y block for sure! I also have a Quick Fuel 650 double pumper I might try, but I'll fool around with the 600 for a bit first.