In reply to Benswen :
Man the z24 is rad, would love to see it on more period correct wheels. Nice to pseudo-meet you as well. I try to bring the car out as much as I can in the summer so maybe our paths will cross again soon!
In reply to Benswen :
Man the z24 is rad, would love to see it on more period correct wheels. Nice to pseudo-meet you as well. I try to bring the car out as much as I can in the summer so maybe our paths will cross again soon!
In reply to Recon1342 :
My expectations are quite low overall, but each of these little fixes make the car work just slightly better and that is cool.
Gunchsta said:In reply to Recon1342 :
My expectations are quite low overall, but each of these little fixes make the car work just slightly better and that is cool.
I love what you've done with it. A lot of folks don't realize what a difference all those little fixes can make.
As far as old American iron goes, the mid-60s barges are some of my favorites, no matter the flavor.
Finally got my test drive with the new motor mounts, took the car to work today. Feels downright sporty!
I mean it's still a barge but it is noticeably better. Some random squeaks and rattles are quieter and the whole car feels more solid.
Plus, throttle inputs seem more responsive because the engine is actually held in place so the low end torque is actually being applied to the drivetrain not to the engine trying to seesaw its way free of the engine bay.
Stoked!
Saturday dad and I buffed and waxed the car. No pictures because I'm no photographer and it doesn't outwardly look that different, but it does look overall just better.
Plus it was a great day working with Dad!
Midsummer update- just got back from a road trip! Our annual friends birthday cabin weekend was back on this year so we went to Eagle River Wisconsin. I wanted to take the Mercury because Wisconsin has some of my favorite country roads to drive but I was nervous about traffic on the holiday weekend. After waffling for a bit I decided that we would be fine.
And indeed we were! Caught some congestion on Friday going out of the cities but otherwise it was smooth sailing. Plus, heading north the weather cools off so it was absolutely beautiful driving weather.
All in all we put over 500 miles on the car and it was quite pleasant. I will say that after about 3 hours the "practically sitting on the floor" bench seat isn't supportive enough and gets kinda uncomfortable. It's not awful but it is noticeable. I'm guessing we used a quart or so of oil, although to be honest I don't even care really. I just try to check it periodically and fill as necessary. With the trunk full the car is pretty squat and the front end starts to get light above 80. The 390 is a terrific workhorse, you just put your foot into it a bit and it grunts up basically any incline in your way with ease and power on tap. On this journey I calculated about 19mpg on the drive up, which was absolutely heroic to me. Beyond that the car is totally filthy and resting on the garage. Later this week I'll wash the gunk off it but for now I'm having a beer and relaxing.
I didn't take many pictures on the trip but here's a couple for those not interested in my ramblings.
Clicked over 60,000 miles! My wife and I both watched as it rolled over and were deeply satisfied with the way all of the numbers changed. It was splendid.
Saw a lot of neat old cars and buildings
This 59 Ford was for sale and awesome, but a little more than I wanted to spend, not to mention deal with having another car haha. It was sitting at this cool shop.
So naturally I took a picture of the Merc.
Another photo opportunity for the Stranger Things fans out there... and no we didn't find ourselves in the upside down thankfully.
This is the cabin we stayed in. I guess it's owned by some ex-nascar driver so the Mercury seemed an appropriate choice.
Another great weekend in the books. Thanks for reading!
That's awesome! Glad you get it out and drive it.
Gunchsta said:
The other kind of carbon offset!
Six months without an update eh? Well, it's winter here in Minnesota and not much is happening. However, last weekend was very warm and sunny so I fired this old gal up and let it warm up in the driveway. I also decided that I would try and utilize the Holley 4 barrel carb I bought at a swap meet last fall.
The carb is a 4160 of the 600cfm, vacuum secondary, electric choke variety. Seems like a perfect carb for a stock 390. For now I'm going to run it on the stock cast iron 2 barrel intake manifold with an adapter. I'll be keeping my eyes out this summer for an aluminum intake manifold, but they're pretty spendy usually.
After some research I ordered the appropriate linkage components for the trans kickdown, as well as a rebuild kit.
This weekend I rebuilt the carb downstairs (taking it outside to clean and dry it) because it was just a little too cold out.
Here it is all torn apart.
And after some movie magic here it is finished. I tried to set everything to neutral so that I have a good baseline to start tinkering with when I get it on the car.
Another score this weekend from a swap- $22 of AN fittings that should allow me to run -6 right from the pump to the carb.
Now, AN fittings aren't exactly period correct for a mild custom, but I have some leftover hose and I really like the way the stuff functions. So, I'm going with it. You likely won't see much under the air cleaner anyway.
So, that's the update for now. I've never been super satisfied with the way the 2 barrel works on this car. It's an older remanufactured unit I've gone through once and it's just not great. Hopefully this will be a small improvement in power and an improvement in drivability.
Carb is on! Dad stopped by and we checked WOT and throttle linkage, I set the kickdown linkage yesterday. I need 12v keyed power to the choke, a vacuum line for the advance, and to finish my fuel line from the carb to the pump. Then we can crank it over and see if magic happens.
At this point I'm figuring either it's going to just magically run and idle out of the box perfect, or I'm going to have some massive vacuum leak that makes it rev to the moon instantly. Should be entertaining either way.
Today was another almost 12 hour day in the office so it was nice to tinker on the car a bit and turn my work brain off.
In reply to Gunchsta :I fired up the galaxie today. You can feel spring wanting to break free. Be time to cruise soon enough
In reply to Norma66-Brent : nice! Always feels good to hear them run.
Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I did this.
Brute strength and no finesse apparently. I'm annoyed because the whole time I'm thinking to myself- "you're gonna do the thing aren't you" and I did indeed do the thing.
Moving on, before I hulk smashed the pump I did get my line made from the pump to the carb, so maybe 1 step forward one step back?
Thrilling.
New pump and adapter fitting are on the way already, something like $63 shipped. I'll try not to ugga dugga this one into next week this time
Also please note the irony of me wanting to use AN line because it doesn't leak.
What was that about leaks?
New pump showed up today, put the fittings in with grace and finesse, so nothing broke.
Hooked everything up, figured I'd crank the car and check for leaks and it mostly fired right up once it started pulling fuel from the tank. But, the transfer tube leaks real bad so I didn't run it for long. Supposedly there's a 'new design' that eliminates the finicky o-rings and works better. Got one on order, hopefully that will alleviate my leak and I'll be good to start tinkering on the drivability of this carb.
Regardless, the car started dead cold with no pumping of the gas pedal, and the electric choke seems to work marvelous. The car sounded better than I remember too, shame I couldn't let it run longer.
Minnesota is supposed to get some snow in the next couple days so I have time to fix this leak and whatever the next one is.
Fun!
Keep us posted on that transfer tube, please. I had to use plain tubing on mine (4180 w/ secondary metering block mod, so it needs a longer tube) and don't remember what I used for seals. It's all theory since it has yet to see action - to use the carb, I need to swap intake manifolds, and if I'm going to do that, I might as well do the cam swap, and that's probably as good a time as any to swap over to LS rockers, which probably warrant new springs...
In reply to DarkMonohue :
Will do. I ordered the Holley 26-115 which is the redesign I guess. Will update my findings!
In reply to Gunchsta :
Okay. That's starting to look familiar. Those 108-97 seals were in the kit I used, and that's almost certainly what's in my carb. So far, so good.
Continuing to get my ass kicked here. Which is funny, because I'm letting it frustrate me which I shouldn't. I'm getting some problems to solve which is part of the fun of working on old junk.
Here's the old design out. The o rings definitely didn't get seated right.
hard to tell, but they're chewed up.
Old style
New style.
The good news is the new style went together way easier and seemed not to leak. The bad news is we uncovered another leak at the press in brass plug for the rear bowl.
So, the JB Weld on that is drying as we speak.
Some other oddities to solve:
I have a high idle condition that feels like a vacuum leak, but I put a vacuum gauge on it and got a great reading of about 19". The reason I'm saying vacuum leak is that the carb idled where it wanted regardless of idle set screw position. I had it backed way off and it still idled high. Originally this morning it idled way high because the throttle cable was holding the throttle too far open. Once I disconnected that it would idle down.
This was solved by moving the ball end fitting to a different hole in the carb.
You can see where it was previously.
But now even with the throttle cable disconnected (it's since also been adjusted) it won't idle down where I think it should. If I manually push the throttle closed it idles down some, but something seems amiss.
My working theory at present is a potential vacuum leak at the PCV
This connection isn't very secure. I put a hose clamp on it for now and we'll see what happens when the JB Weld dries.
Some quick googling confirms my vacuum leak suspicion. What's interesting is that I got a good vacuum reading.
I wonder if the vacuum leak could have been bad enough that it idled too high to get an accurate vacuum reading. That almost doesn't make sense to say. We'll see. Hopefully the JB Weld fixes my fuel leak and I can actually let the car run for a while. As it was it leaked so bad I didn't want to run it super long.
One thing at a time
Would spraying some flammable stuff (starting fluid? I've heard carb cleaner, too) around to see if/when/where the idle picks up help locate the prob for you?
jfryjfry said:Would spraying some flammable stuff (starting fluid? I've heard carb cleaner, too) around to see if/when/where the idle picks up help locate the prob for you?
An unlit propane torch, with a rubber hose over the tip to guide the gas to the suspected leaks, can also work, and doesn't make a mess.
Well, fixed the leak at the brass plug
spent some time diagnosing suspected vacuum leaks and didn't find much with carb cleaner, or with disconnecting the pcv. I did happen to think about the fact that I could 'force' it to idle down if I held the throttle closed. And having my hand on the throttle itself made me think about throttle shafts, and how those can wear out...
Not 100% conclusive but these suckers are loose. I'm pretty sure that's my issue. The thing idles so dang high it's hard to really diagnose anything. I did squirt some carb spray at the rear throttle shaft and it bogged a little bit, which tells me something.
Dang
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