Technical 51 flathead----no power???

this flat head is just lazy...started out fuel problem..starts and runs fine... putt around in 25 mph zone... it does ok... any faster and it labors hard to get rpm...took the carb apart 2 times.... had to flush the tank... fuel filters plugged gas lines plugged... tank petcock plugged....electric fuel pump...all lines and filters cleared... does kinda ok on flat ground.... but any hill she lays down.....sooo I figured check timing.... theres a timing pointer but nothing on the pulley.. also checked points... look new and I gapped to 17... the rotor cap seems to spin a little... so with the help from my wife to do the gas peddle I had her rev it and I twist the dist.... it just stayed flat.... so next... I hooked up a timing light..... had her rev it a few times nothing... even though theres no timing mark... I figured I could still look at the pulley and see if a spot moved.... nothing... took the cap off again.. the vac. advance is free... lost my vac pump and it's a steel line from dist to carb..... guess tomorrow I could un hook it at the dist. and see if there's vac??? sooo... isn't there a better dist??? centrifical advace??? what are you running in your flat head??? a sbc???

 

With that much of the fuel system plugged, I would re-examine the carburetor. It doesn’t take much of a crumb to cause problems. May be worth the time to completely dis- assemble it and soak in a closed constrained of acetone for 24 hours or so. Follow this with a can of carb cleaner, spraying in every orifice, making sure you get a steady stream where fluid should come out. This has worked for me many times with some crusty carbs. It wouldn’t hurt to run parts through an ultrasonic cleaner if you have access to one. I would still chase orifices with canned carb cleaner.

 

If it starts easily and idles smoothly, I might start by connecting a vacuum gauge and see what manifold vacuum is doing. If it drops at cruise speed over 25 mph, it might be a plugged exhaust.

 

did all that twice.... my opinion is that theres no spark advance proven with timing light... thanks for replying

 

thanks ,...all new exhaust duals...

 

Assuming that it has a decent size air filter on it, that is clean.
Seen a couple of times that a dirty air filter gives those symptoms.

 

Ignition coil...??? Most carby problems turn out to be electrical.

 

Back long before I had access to or owned a vacuum pump a length of vacuum hose hooded to the advance that I could suck on let me know if the vacuum advance was working.
If it acts like it just flat runs out of gas and then goes again after you let off the gas for long enough to shift gears and pulls until it acts up again I'd look for a restriction in the line including a kinked line. Check anywhere there is a fitting to see that they didn't twist a line and check to see if they didn't kink a line or hose at a bend.

They usually fully die when the pump cannot overcome the vacuum in the tank but make sure that your gas cap is venting and letting air in the tank to replace the gas going out. If you are just drivng a few blocks and it won't pull a sick whore off a pot it might be creating a vacuum in the tank and if it has a pretty low fuel level it takes a lot longer to creat that vacuum that the fuel pump can't overcome than if the tank is full.

 

It sounds like you are tunning a single carb, so either get the Load-a-Matic advance working properly or change your distributor to something with a working centrifugal advance (either a converted SBC unit or an old Mallory dual-point). Then do compression and vacuum tests and get back to us.

 

does it with or without the air filter

 

I see now there's a modern dist for flatheads on Ebay,hei unit with small body...wonder if they are any good... my plan for this morning is to get into the vac advance and first check that it's getting vac from the carb, I'll check to see that rpms go up when I un hook it at the dist.. should be able to hear it and feel it....I did check at the crank pulley with a timing light and it shows no advance at any rpm..

 

small FEMALE cap FORD FLATHEAD 239 + 255 V8 HEI Distributor RED 1949-1953 | eBay

 

it has a elect fuel pump... my guess is the prev. owner was up against this.. but I'll try running it with no cap and see..still guessing, but I'm thinking it in the dist... and it has new ngk b6 plugs.. I did check to see that the adv. plate moves... not knowing but I think the only advance is the vac.. and I'm thinking counter clock is advance at the dist?? my guess is never see's more than 10-12 degrees even with the dist cranked around far as it will go

what it does is start and run fine...25 mph zone it runs perfect...but trying to get to 45 or 50 it struggles , then no power to pull a grade..

 

heres the exhaust.. this is what happens when you let your youngest son work on your truck... took him the truck, and some ebay headers... first thing he said was that shit don't fit...it'll hit the steering... I said just just heat the pipe and dent it to clear..." I don't do shit like that" just leave it. i'll get to it when I can.. I brought 2- 2'' chrome motor cycle mufflers... he said that by the time you squish the pipe to clear the steering box no air will pass and it'll boil the oil in the steering box,.... looks like he got on the plasma table and fabbed hangers for the lake pipes mounted them solid and put flex pipe with V band clamps...lol.... 4 k exhaust system...

 

And that pipe is not going to move at all. Eventually, something is going to break. Really nice work, except for that.

 

I have a back yard shop at the vegas house... I work mostly by my self... but some times I have to ask my wife for a hand.... wondering,,, should I ask her to hold the timing light... or suck on the hose???

 

also.. you can feel in the throttle that the motors lazy

 

pretty sure the flex pipe will take care of that...

 

was there more to this post that you deleted? reads kinda funny starting with AND

 

you would be surprised at how much movement is in those flex pipes

 

My '51 Ford coupe with stock flathead has a lazy engine. It didn't use to be that way. It was a second gear tire barker and ran great for what it was. After selling it 35 years ago then buying it back it is lazy. I knew the person that had it the longest and I do know he had the engine out and worked on and I have always thought the timing gear is a tooth off. Maybe, maybe not but that's how it acts. That engine is coming out and a fresh one is going in before long.

Good luck with yours. It is a good looker and worth the effort.

Dave

 

thanks for the post,,, I'm still at it...can't seem to find my vac. gauge.. could be at havasu or kanab, but for sure can't find it in vegas... but... I remember a problem like this from years and years ago....didn't have much vac... turned out to be a bad vac wiper motor.... so to day I un hooked and plugged the line...but before that... the steel line from dist to carb fitting was loose... so I un hooked it....ran the same with the line off.... so I blew it out with a air hose...maybe it was plugged??? I then un hooked the line to the wiper...big differance ...lots of vacume at the hose....so I put a 1/4-20 shoulder bolt to plug it....I'm stopping for now till I get a vac pump and gauge to check ever thing.... stay tuned..

 

Do you in fact have a Loadamatic distributor and the proper matching Loadamatic carburetor?

If you have a distributor that runs CW, then rotating the housing CCW will advance the timing. And vice a versa.

 

On an 8BA flathead there is a small bump on the crank pulley that is the timing mark, timing should be set at 0 degrees and the distributor should advance when revved up.

 

I run the load automatic distributor on my Mercury motor but have it locked out with bailing wire so it doesn't move. And I have set the timing to 20° at that dot. Runs awesome and starts awesome.

 

I might just have to redefine my meaning of "awesome" after reading this.

 

hell if I know.....

 

got a pic of the bump??? seems like I read somewhere that some years didn't have the bump???

 

my dist. doesn't move the plate inside moves

 

I don't think this is the case. Have you considered that someone in the past may have installed the distributor a few teeth off and then moved the wires around to make up for it? The engine will run fine, but the timing mark on the pulley will move out of sight. I've seen this happen a couple of times.

It actually happened to me on a '68 Corvette. Believe me, it is well worth the time it takes to get things back in proper order.