Topic: My RUNNING '66 Mustang (tuning and cleaning now)

[wannabridin]

hey guys!  i have my '66 coupe with a 289 in it and i just did some pretty big upgrades to the motor.

i threw a set of trick flow twisted wedge 170 heads (http://www.summitracing.com/parts/TFS-51400002/), a comp cams 260h cam, hydraulic lifters, tri-y headers, performance products damper, comp cams timing set, composite dist. gear (stock dist) and a 500 edelbrock carb (1403) with electric choke.  i also have a performer 289 intake, pertronix igntion, blaster 3 coil, ford racing 8 mm wires, arvinode exhaust and some other goodies.

after getting everything put on, i pre-lubed the top end, put some gas in the vent tubes and she fired up after a couple of tries.  idle was too low to keep her going, but i was keeping the rpm's at about 2k for oiling and break in.  after about 10 minutes of this, the lower radiator hose clamp let go and puked coolant everywhere!  after replacing the hoses, clamps and coolant, i went to start her back up, and i get nothing!  maybe a couple of coughs and puffs, but other than that nothing!!  starter fluid in the carb and priming the bowls doesn't do a thing.  vac lines are all new as are the caps on the carb, so it's not that.

can anyone shed some light on the situation for me??  offer me some advice??  i'm really confused as to what could have happened as everything sounded great when she was running at first!  thanks!

[wannabridin]

i went out and checked the resistance across primary and secondary circuits on my blaster 3 coil.  readings were .9 ohm and 5.5K ohm, respectively.  MSD calls for .7 and 4.5K.  could the coil be bad?  extra resistance means weaker spark...

maybe the coolant spray shorted something out? 

[mark]

maybe the coolant spray shorted something out?

more likely a wet distributor cap than a bad coil.

[hesselfuzz]

+1 one the wet distributor cap. Pull a plug wire, insert a key. Hold it close, but not touching, to a good ground while cranking and see if you have a spark. If it ran then it can only be no gas or no spark. Start with that.

[wannabridin]

Hard to check for ground without a helper unfortunately...

Also, I pulled the cap and everything is dry, but bill clean it off again.  I'm going to go to parts store and check a new coil, and compare.  I tried grounding the coil with key on, and I had no spark by pulling the wire off ground as MSD instructed.  I really hope its just the coil...

[wannabridin]

went and bought a new coil just to check, and no luck. cleaned all the connections in the distributor cap and rotor along with pulling all plug wires, blowing them out with compressed air. also pulled all plugs, cleaned them out and checked the gap, and re-installed. still doing the same thing...

maybe the pertronix ignitor is to blame??

[wannabridin]

just checked the coil via ground spark test and coil is delivering a very strong spark to the distributor.  my only thoughts are that something is wrong in there...  MIGHT be time for a new one 

[Grnrngr]

Did your alternator get soaked?

[Frankencake]

Make sure you distributor is spinning if so, then start at when you shut it off.  Check your timing.  Make sure your distributor clamp bolt is tight.  Stop worrying.  It sounds like you know what you are doing here but you are fretting over something you already know how to do.                                 
                                                                               Stop.


 Take it all in and approach it like you've never heard the car run, it isn't yours and it's your job to get it running.  That is the approach that you need to take.  Back to basics.  It's only an engine.  It can't outsmart you.  Do a compression check for the hell of it.  Diagnose this problem just any other problem.  Forget about the dollars you put in to the engine.  They mean nothing now, and you'll never see them back, anyway.   The upside is that you'll get to burn the #$%* out of your tires sometime this summer.  (your moneys worth right there)  I recommend buying used tires on steel rims and getting it out of your system.   

[wannabridin]

well i freak out when i spend a LOT of time on something big like this and then it doesn't work.  i was worried something happened on the cam, but turned out, i had just let the dist. spin about 90 degrees off.  found this when i reset TDC.  fixed this and got it fired up last night.  need to adjust idle mixture and the timing a little more today, and i should be good for road tests to find tune everything else! 


thanks for the help guys, i just needed to get my thoughts out and make sure i wasn't missing anything else...

[Frankencake]

well i freak out when i spend a LOT of time on something big like this and then it doesn't work.  i was worried something happened on the cam, but turned out, i had just let the dist. spin about 90 degrees off.  found this when i reset TDC.  fixed this and got it fired up last night.  need to adjust idle mixture and the timing a little more today, and i should be good for road tests to find tune everything else! 


thanks for the help guys, i just needed to get my thoughts out and make sure i wasn't missing anything else...

It's perfectly normal to freak out.  I'd probably feel the same way.  In my experience, though, you can't really make a good judgments until you go at them with a straight mind.

I gave away a motor I rebuilt that only needed a woodruff key to make it run because I freaked out.  I gave my first motorcycle away because I was freaking out and didn't understand carb tuning.  I freaked out so bad I couldn't work on them because I let my emotions get in the way.  I really wanted that boat to run as well as the bike.
I'm glad to hear you got it running.  I had faith in you.  Rock on!

[wannabridin]

thanks for the nice words!  now it's just a matter of tuning and some "mild" diagnosing.  theres a small oil weep from what i assume is the rear main seal.  it's only about 4-5 drops worth after running each time, so i'm not going to worry about it. 

also, there's a "air sucking" sound when rpm's rise, can't quite figure that out one yet either.  vacuum is really strong, fuel pressure is about 3.5 psi.  i think i'm going to lean up the fuel mixture 1 "stage" and see how that goes.

i have to wait until june 24 for a dyno though!!  the only local place i trust is VERY booked, so i have to take what i can get.  until then, i'm not going to hot rod it much until i feel more comfortable about everything. 

next up is to pull the valve covers and check the rocker arms, i MIGHT have one that's a tab bit loose.  also need to go to an exhaust shop and have them finish weld some exhaust connections i couldn't get to without a lift.  SS clamps are keeping most of the exhaust in I believe, so hopefully that won't be a problem...

thanks for the help though!  hopefully i can get a video of it up soon, sounds REALLY good!  like a 60's track car!!

[cb650]

Pics?