Showing posts with label Ford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ford. Show all posts

Sunday, March 8, 2015

A man attempted to make his own hard line, YOU WON'T BELIEVE HAPPENED NEXT!

My God, it's full of fuel!

I ditched the boxing analogy for a hilarious click-bait title.  I see these types of things shared on Facebook more than I can count.  For some reason, I refuse to click on those articles out of some stubborn defiance.   Sadly for me, that probably means I won't see: dogs seeing their military owners come home, dancing skeletons, some sort of act of scripted kindness, probably some video with racist contextual overtones and other super fun political stuff.  Darn!!!!

Anyway, A few nights ago, I decided to get all that fuel line bent, connected and fired the beast up.... Fuel squired all across the front of the engine from an unknown origin.  It went EVERYWHERE.




After frantically disconnecting the battery and cleaning up my mess, I discovered that I missed tightening up a fitting.  After spilling more fuel, I found that the AN-to-NPT fitting to the fuel inlet line (the black thing to the silver thing) was ill-fitting and did not create a seal.  So I tightened it further!!  When in doubt, crank it out!

To test this:

  1. Disconnect coil wire (not the lead but just the power feed). This prevents the engine from actually starting.
  2. Turn the key, let it turn over a few times to get some gas pumped into the line.
  3. Observe leak become even worse....
  4. Become super high off of gas fumes. (Just joking...I think)


So after yet ANOTHER run to Summit Racing, I armed myself with a Summit Line kit that feeds directly to the Carburetor.  With nice and fresh threading, not ruined by my touch.  Then connecting to that is an -6AN-to-3/8 NPT fitting.  Interesting to note...it was used. There was gunk in the threading that I cleaned out with a pipe cleaner.  Huh.  Moving on....

Drum roll...and pigeons
After tightening everything up, I turn her over; the leak disappeared and I had solid fuel pressure! Wooooo! Mission Accomplished!
Also, the gas fumes made me chase a pigeon away from my bird feeder, making me look like the crazy bird guy on my block.  I HATE pigeons.  I hate Doves second.  They are basically the upper class of the pigeon world.  I'm pigeonist.   I'll take a kickass scrub-jay any day.  Or a rockin black bird.

Back on track;
So here are a few pictures of the line setup starting from the Carb.

Edelbrock 1411 Carburetor to Summit Fuel Line Inlet
That golden bell like thing is a fuel pressure sender. I had to bend the summit fuel line outwards to get it to fit underneath that carb choke.

From there, 3/8 hard line, bent around to the front of the engine.
That black rigid stuff is some heat shielding to prevent it from touching the block directly.

-6AN inline fuel filter with two -6AN to Tube adapter connecting it from the 3/8 hard line.

Then it wraps around behind the coil and down into the gas pump.  Sheathed in more heat shielding
It connects to the stock gas pump using -6AN to 5/8''-18o-ring.

Another shot from the passenger side.

So in conclusion, here are the parts list for this entire setup:
Fuel Line Setup:
My Specs:


No more degrading rubber.

You may ask why I was so insistent on moving away from rubber.  Look for yourself.  Below is from my previous inline fuel filter setup with a full rubber line coming from the pump.

That black stuff? That's rubber from a brand new O'Reilly Auto's fuel rated hose.  This happened with several rounds of rubber tubing.  



Maybe those mechanics were right when talking about the ethanol in our gas.  Or maybe it could be my leaky exhaust baking the living hell out of anything that will melt within its radius.  Or both!

Into the future

Anyway, next week will probably be centered around the start of the 466 build!  My friend / El Hefe is rad and is letting me post up in his shop/man-cave to build up this engine.  So expect lots of pictures and progress reports coming in regards to that.

Until next week.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Quick History

Sorry.
This blog will be a bit ugly until I can make time to stylize this myself.  So mind the template, single picture, 'babby's first internet site' look.  I figured if I don't just start doing this now, I will never get around to it.    

So Let me tell you how and why I got this car.

It always starts with Craigslist.



I saw this online and thought to myself; I've always wanted to learn how to actually do things on cars outside of changing brakes and oil...now is the time.  Time to make a trip to Tahoe.

Turns out, my buddy Bryan and I were heading up to there anyway to try some isolation chamber therapy thingy. It's some hippy thing where you lay by yourself, naked, in a dark enclosed tub of body temperature salt like water.  You float and it literally feels like you are floating in mid air.  So after about an hour of this, you start going insane with no stimuli around you.   I think you are supposed to meet your spirit animal but instead, I met the sensation you get when your bladder is about blow a gasket from that giant Gatorade you finished off before you arrived.....

Anyway, I asked him to do me a solid and help me check out that car from the ad.  He's awesome and we make the adventure.  I meet the guy and he let's me drive this thing around.  I fell in love.  It smells like gas, rumbles when you step on it and talks back to you on occasion.  The decision was made. 

So I open my wallet and nothing.  We make a trip to the ATM and the thing has a limit to 800 bucks. So between me and Bryan's two debit cards, we come up with the moneys.  We come back with a fist full of cash, make the trade and then I drive this death trap back home to Reno.

So there you go, quick story on how the beast came to be.  

In the future

In between posts of what I'm currently breaking on this Beast, I'll post pictures/stories of what I've already done to this thing.  They include:
  • Rewiring the engine harness
  • Several failed attempts at crimping my own spark plug wires
  • Duraspark replacement
  • New front and rear suspension
  • Brakes calipers, pads, hoses, master cylinder and even custom made brake lines....
  • Heater Core destruction!
  • Radiator tube explodes and its replacement
  • Rewiring more stuff.
  • Planned engine rebuild, purchased new engine block, heads, headers, cam, etc etc ettc
  • Control arm failure!!!
  • Front suspension part II
  • and more!

Pictures

Here are pictures of the Beast right after it found a new home.  Right before I discovered all the fun gems of taking over someone else's project.
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Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Prologue


This is 'The Beast'.  She is a 1972 Ford LTD Brougham with a 429 Big Block inside.  I think I am the 3rd owner?   She has a tow hitch.  Her original steering wheel and column are no where to be found.  The coil is powered by the accessory post.  You can start her while she is in 'Drive'.    She has bucket seats.  I have no idea what is original and what isn't.   


This is me.  Until the day I bought this thing in late 2012, the most I've ever done to a car was change the oil.  Now I'm knee deep into my first engine rebuild.

From here on out, I will document my [many] mistakes and triumphs as I rebuild this ugly boat back to its former glory.  Or whatever vision I end up having for it.

I will also be posting flashbacks as to what I've already done to the car, both on purpose and on accident.  Like the blog states; I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm learning! 

So stay tuned!