Five Years (+10) and counting

[Tom S]

If something did come undone I'd be concerned about breaking off the tail shaft housing.

Been there, done that. 50+ years ago at about 90 per in a 100% stock '57 Ford wagon with an auto trans & no driveshaft loop.  There was a whole lotta shakin' goin' on!

[59meteor]

If something did come undone I'd be concerned about breaking off the tail shaft housing.

  I've seen them before on mostly gm products and have never been a big fan.

  I wonder how you would test something like that.

That would be my concern as well. In both my street/strip 59, as well as my Fairmont drag car, I have the Lakewood style driveshaft loops that are bolted thru the floor at the front. The  Fairmont also has a rear driveshaft loop, welded thru the rear ladder bar crossmember. That said, the few times that I have broken a U joint, it was always the rear joint that broke. Back in the 70s, I had the driveshaft on my 66 Fairlane GTA break in the middle, going into 3rd gear, at the dragstrip. No loops back in those days, but a front loop wouldn`t have really done much, as the front section slid out, onto the track, while the rear section , still bolted to the pinion yoke, was merrily smashing and tearing holes in the floor boards. By the way, 66 Fairlanes had the brake lines running down the transmission tunnel, which the driveshaft ripped apart in short order.

[gasman826]

After a discussion with the second dyno tuner, it dawned on me than many of my tune-up components really weren't new.  Yes, the components were very good quality and had very few miles but time is the enemy.  The engine has been together for more than ten years but never ran until a year ago.  So, are the valve seals good?  Plug wires?  Cap?  Rotor?  Rockers?  Going in deep!!!  I replaced the valve seals with Manley Viton seals.  New Manley locks.  Tested the valve spring pressure. Replaced the pushrods.  Replaced the Harland Sharp roller rockers.  New NGK plugs.  New MSD custom fit plug wires.  New MSD distributor.  Ready for the next diagnostic steps!!

[RICH MUISE]

Well, if nothing else, it sure looks purdy!!

[gasman826]

Once again the big name racing parts companies come through.  I have been surprised several times with companies like Hilborn, Power Master, Crane, Harland Sharp, Weldon, etc. that still have super customer service and lifetime support.  I sent fuel pumps back to Weldon.  Weldon rebuilt, certified and returned my pumps for free and a 'thanks for doing business with us'.  Power Master rebuilt an alternator for the cost of the parts.  Harland Sharp inspected my rockers.  Although there was minimal wear, they replaced all the moving parts for a very reasonable fee.  Very impressed.  Such a relief from the sea of off-shore product complaints.  Unfortunately, far too many of these old time companies have been swallowed up by huge investment companies that eliminate PR and customer support to profit from the brand recognition. 

[rmk57]

   
   There very nice quality rockers. I see yours are the bbc version (SH 2001), the ratio and design is slightly different but lots of guys run them on their BBF's.

  The 4005 is the dedicated bbf, 351 Cleveland version which I use. Look forward to seeing the Dyno results.

[gasman826]

I've had several sets of Harland Sharp rockers.  The only issue I have with them is that there is no ID numbers on them.

[gasman826]

The comment on my earlier post, "going in deep", was somewhat of a joke.  The maintenance stuff was easier than the next step in diagnosing the problem.  Through all the shake-down, testing, and break-in, there has been a minor, random misfire.  Never under WOT.  A random RPM spike shows up on the computer screen.  Since it is random and not showing up in any of the mechanical stuff, I going with 'stray voltage' on the CRANK signal.  So all the EFI is being physically separated from all the other ECUs.  All grounds are being confirmed.  All shielding is being confirmed.  All signal wires are being separated.  All ground and voltage wires are being separated and rerouted.  Since I thought be would be cool to bury the harness in the counsel, it was not serviceable.  Now, it is all coming out of the car and spread out on the floor.

[gasman826]

As I play with my new WIFI, I set here gazing up at the underside of the Custom as I search for inspiration.  I have a few wiring tasks to complete as the pick list winds down for this winter's upgrades.  The DE-TECH the CUSTOM Project has been ruthless.  The 8-stack EFI injection, Weber intake, FAST EFI, Flex fuel, GPS, and FM traffic are all ripped out and listed on FaceBook MarketPlace.  I've reinstalled the CJ Stealth intake, MSD distributor, Weldon low pressure fuel pump and regulator with a brand new custom build 950 cfm, double pumper, Quick Fuel carburetor.  Let the testing begin.

[lalessi1]

Just curious, is the DE-TECH in response to the random misfire or other issues? I have mixed feelings about going the EFI route that I went, the car seems to run better but I lack confidence in the reliability of the car. Nothing specific but I haven't been driving it as much. If I went back to a carburetor I would start having heat related drive-ability issues again but the car seemed "more fun" with the regular stuff.

[gasman826]

There are many reasons.  I bought the 8-stack nearly 15 years ago.  I wanted the 'WOW' factor now 8-stacks are somewhat common.  I wanted the challenge of learning something new.  Challenges are not so important anymore.  I liked, and still do, E85 but the end of government support money, E85 is less popular and harder to find when traveling so I don't need the Flex Fuel capability of EFI.  I buy new carburetors from vendors who custom tune the carb before delivery.  The last four carburetors have been bolted on out of the box and gone to the dyno with the only change was to the idle speed screw.  There is very, very little HP or mileage difference to a tuned carburetor and tuned EFI.  Aftermarket EFI reliability is fair to good but nowhere near OEM EFI.  The big difference between aftermarket and OEM is there is a factory dealership down the road.  With EFI, you are committed to some kind of support.  I did not have access to the source code to understand how the software worked.  Training and/or experience are too expensive (time and/or money).  There are thousands of books and videos how a carb works.  I work on my cars and do everything to them.  It hurts my ego to have to wait two months for a tuner appointment and it scares the hell out of me to drag an enclosed car trailer through two hours of Detroit rush hours traffic to get to the closest knowledgeable tuner.  I do not want a carburetor on my Expedition!  Carburetors have been around for well over 100 years in millions of applications.  Show me an aftermarket EFI with that kind of track record and I will be all over it.  Another thing that you might not think a deal breaker but there is no aftermarket air cleaner that would clear the hood for the 8-stacks.  K&N makes a DIY kit but it is north of $800 and still won't clear the hood and firewall.  Oh, no air cleaner...where do you mount the MAT sensor! 
I'm pretty sure I can hear the buzzer going off to end my vent session.  Thanks for listening/reading.
SO, I had some of the carburetor stuff so it wasn't a big deal to switch.
The car will hit the market whether next year or ten years so the less tech the easier the sale.
If I was twenty years younger, the EFI would have stayed.  I still like cruising but it is getting harder to screw up the enthusiasm to work on them.  I still have two more in the wings to get going!

[gasman826]

Carburetor conversion complete under the hood and running.  Putting the interior and trunk back together.

[gasman826]

left side...

[mustang6984]

Dang Gary...that bad puppy looks almost too sweet to fire up! Clean buddy! I LIKE it!   

[59meteor]

I am similar in my thoughts on EFI. As a retired auto mechanic, the last 35 years at 2 different new car dealerships, the factory EFI systems are great, pretty much "bullet proof" , which with the deep pockets and engineering teams that the OEs have, they should be. But between the number of near new aftermarket EFI kits that I see at swap meets on online , and several people that I know that have had many issues with the aftermarket EFI kits, (including a similar 8 stack, on a SB Ford), I will stick with carbs on my old stuff. We have 3 factory EFI vehicles in our "fleet" with a total of 786,000 km (close to 1/2 million miles), and none of them have had any issues or repairs make to the OE EFI systems. (the original fuel pump was replaced on my 99 F350, just as a preventative measure). And if a sensor, injector, pump, or other component bit the dust, replacements are readily available. The aftermarket stuff, seems to have little, if any parts support. Both my drag car, and my 59, have Holley carbs, both start up within a few revolutions of the crankshaft. Neither have a functional choke, so IF I drove them in cold weather, that could be a possible concern , but since both are fair weather toys, mot a issue at all.