Brand new good times

[Swank]

Howdy,
Had this thing running earlier today for a couple minutes, then worked on putting the front end back on, then this evening decided to take everybody for a quick spin around the block since I have all the lights on it now.  It cranked up, sputtered a little, acted like it wanted to die, then did.  Afterwards, it completely did not want to start. Eventually it took 20 minutes, jumper cables, and starter fluid to get it going.  Still sputters at idle and will die if not throttled.
Its always had a few drops out the exhaust at startup, but i figured it was condensation, and it would stop after it warmed up.
Tonight this seems a good bit excessive and im thinking im getting water in a cylinder.  Im not seeing anything that looks like water in the oil, so im hoping a sleeve is not cracked. 
What do you think?  Head gasket? They are brand new. Might need re-torqued?
Its not warmed up in this video, but im suspecting this isnt normal, its still 90 degrees here, and that would be a ton of condensation regardless.

What do yall think im looking at?

https://youtu.be/1fYoNf2WX2Q

[hiball3985]

That looks like more then condensation unfortunately.

[djfordmanjack]

is this slightly greasy like coolant ? if you have anti freeze in there.
you better remove the plugs to check each cylinder. before that, if you have a heater installed, who knows. it could be a damaged thermostatic valve that the carb is sucking coolant from.

[hiball3985]

Good suggestion G, I forgot about the valve as I don't use them.

[Swank]

Morning,  yeah, no heater at all.  Car is a complete delete car.

Planning on pulling the plugs today and see whats up.

[djfordmanjack]

It would be interesting to know if you ever found the origin of the funny noise that you posted earlier or if there is a connection between the two problems. It could also be a cracked head, which Y blocks are quite known for. What is your experience on that Jim ?

[hiball3985]

I've never had a cracked head on a Y, maybe just lucky.

[djfordmanjack]

Maybe it's just my bad luck, but out of 4 engines and 2 donor heads I have a stack of 4 cracked heads on the scrap iron pile.
Now let's hope for Eugene that it is just a simple odd problem or a faulty head gasket.

[Swank]

Not 100 % sure on that crazy woodblock sound, but pretty sure its the choke tube leaking exhaust, like was suggested on this site.  Its calmed down a bit lately.  Theres a little soot up against the inside of the head directly across from the opening.  Was planning on addressing the tube soon, but needing it to ride as is for a moment.

Pulled the plugs (completely dry and sooty), turned engine over to see if it might spit some water, ....nothing.  Dont have a way to look into the cylinders.  Ran compression gauge on the cylinders,  ...all 8 exactly at 120.

For just a little extra good times, found the autolite 2100 leaking around the power valve or acc pump, or both. Might explain the black plugs. Plugs cleaned up fairly decent with just a blue shop towel.  Taking the 2100 back apart.

Anyways, planning on re-torquing the heads and seeing where im at.   Got new head gaskets on speed dial.

[hiball3985]

There shouldn't be any exhaust from the choke tube. The exhaust cross over only heats the air in the tube chamber. Maybe the crossover has burned through or the manifold is cracked?
A blown power valve could be letting a lot of gas into the engine.

[Tom S]

There shouldn't be any exhaust from the choke tube. The exhaust cross over only heats the air in the tube chamber.

Yeah, all I've ever seen is a blind hole that the tube fits into.
But I haven't seen a Y block intake up real close in decades, just the blind choke tube holes in exhaust manifolds.

[djfordmanjack]

The choke heater tube goes all the way from the left side of the manifold ( with the mushroom shaped filter/noise damper element) to the right side where the choke heater line connects.

The tube in the manifold passes through the exhaust crossover channel. there must be no leak into the exhaust system! it just sucks fresh air from the mushroom intake, which is heated by the exhaust crossover channel. on my 4bl manifold the choke tube was rusted out inside the manifold.

Eugene, make sure you have the right 2100. I had huge problems with idle on mine because it came from a wrong application ( believe AMC or Dodge truck). Important thing is, that Ford 2bl had a seperate remote vent, for the fuel bowl which opens at idle. if your carb does not have that, it will get extremely lean in idle to the point where engine stalls. therefore you would need to enrich the mixture by backing out the idle mix screws, possibly causing black spark plugs. Just an idea.
Let's see a pic of carb w/o air cleaner on top !

Peculiar that you can't see anything on the plugs concerning the water- should have surface rust or dampness on it if there is a coolant leak problem. Maybe your carb/ intake gaskets is totally off and you are having so much condensed water because of a huge vacc leak ?

[Swank]

The 2100 is not original.  Doing some cross referencing when i got the first rebuild kit from Mikes Carbs a couple years ago, determined it was an early 70's 2100.   Its got the choke pull off valve on the air horn behind the opening.  Venturi is 1.23.  Jets are 55.  I did have to roll the idle screws out about 3 turns instead of the 1.5, and i still really couldnt get it to idle smooth below 550-600/rpm when in park.  Those tubes in front of the choke plate open to the top of the bowl.
Just last week this thing was going pretty good. It started on the first or second crank every time.
Dwell was running at 26, between 6-8 advanced initial time, vacuum was at 18 inches, idle dropping to 500 in drive, trans shifted smooth.  Drove it around the block several times. Had it running and idling normal in the driveway sunday morning, later that evening, ...junk.
Today, threw a carb kit back in the 2100,  checked the head torque (although cold, cause it dont want to run). Messed around for hours trying to get it to idle.  Still doesnt want to. After several tries, it'll fire up, if i keep the rpms up it'll run, but if i let off, after a second up to half a minute, it'll just dead stop, almost like it was turned off. 
Will a head gasket leak cause it to completely kill off?
I went as far as to pull the pipes back from the exhaust headers to see it there was any direct h2o evidence,  ..nothing.
Not excited about pulling the heads, so i'd like to be sure its for a reason. I'd hate to have some strange carb and elec issues instead.
Plan on trying to run the whole tuning deal tomorrow,  but head gaskets are still on speed dial.

[John Palmer]

The Ford Autolite carbs are about as simple as you can get.  They worked just fine until they started having to add lots of features to satisfy the new federal emission standards of the 1970's. 

Having to turn the idle mixture screws out three full turns is a sign that it's very lean (assuming you do not have a vacuum leak).  A very lean engine will also have idling surge problems like described when you drop it into drive at a stop.

I worked at a Ford dealership during the late 60's and early 70's as the emission changes were arriving.  I was one of five tech's that solely did tune up and electrical work at this large dealership.  We did many modifications to these new car carbs to help with severe driveability problems.  Fortunately these were the early days of emission testing and we were able to get by, since we were not required to pass any sniffer tests yet.

Take a small number drill set, and measure the very small brass tubes at the bottom of the venture booster.  You can pull the booster and carb top, while the carb is installed on the engine.  DO NOT MOVE THE THROTTLE SHAFT, because the accelerator weight is retained only by the booster bolt you will be removing.  The mixture tubes will measure about .020".  What ever they measure, take that number and go up a couple of thousandths (maybe a 10% increase).  It will improve your idle mixture, and get you back to the standard one and one half turns out on the mixture screws.  All your doing is rejetting the "idle circuit" a little richer.

Make sure you have the distributor connected to venturi vacuum, and not manifold vacuum.   

As with most things, diagnosis is the hard part, the fix is usually easy, after you figure out exactly what's needed.

[djfordmanjack]

first hand info from John !
I can only add that I had serious problems with idle mixture before I got it running nicely!
I do not see any provision for the additional fuel bowl vent. As I mentioned before, my carb was plugged for another application and it would always stall as soon as the engine warmed up and got off the fast idle cam. I must add that I have a Holley 2300.