Does that engine have adjustable lifters in it? Sounds like it could be a sticky valve guide or lifter not adjusted properly. I would look in the easiest place first, and that would be the valve cover! You could use the engine crank, have a friend turn it over for you after it has sat for a while and see if one of the lifters is coming away from one of the valve stems.
Elrod Did you bend the stock headlight bar for clearance? I have a filled "B" shell (old time name) and I think I have a stock bar that has been tweaked for clearance. I like the "stance" of your coupe and Chris's coupe.. I have a 2" chop on mine, kind of a "keep them guessing" chop. I'm considering one of those "32" gas tank conversions.
I know it doesn't make any sense but it seems the two piece crankshaft pulley was to blame. A friend and I cut down a socket so it would fit between the crankshaft pulley nut and the front crossmember then ran an extension through the crank hole and tightened it with an impact gun. The engine hasn't made the knocking noises since. I posted this on a different thread but do any of you know what this br*** Stromburg carb cam off of?
1918 Allen: 1916-1922 Allen 1920 Elcar with Lycoming engine 1918 - 1920 Harroun 1918-1923 Hupmobile Engine size ranges was 166ci - 224 ci mid 30 to mid 40HP range.
Ran into a guy at a cruise last night who just bought a '29 sedan. He's going to hotrod it with SBC. So, I offered him 500 for the running gear and he said OK! I just need to wait for him to pull it. Everything from the crank pulley to the rear drums!! He is keeping the front axle though.
Very Cool! I have a stock headlight bar that is not tweeked. I want to drop it though. I found out that I'm going to have to change to a Model B 4 cyl radiator. The Model A radiator won't clear the grill insert, so the grill isn't going back far enough to meet the hood, or the filler neck. So on the hunt for that!
Forgot to show you all these. Had them made for the Flathead Meltdown entrants. 3mm br***, etched and filled. Always liked old timing tags... This one is on the dash of my '26 Touring, and says 17.3 @ 77mph.
Elrod, Car looks WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better with the p***anger car shell in my opinion. Nice job! I found a 32 B radiator for my roadster, it bolted in and worked great for my 28/29 but is a little too tall. May not be a problem with a 30/31. Try Fordbarn.com for the 32 radiator, I'll bet you have good luck there.
Couple 94's may be a bit too much carb for a stock A. I run two 81's on my B, but had to put larger jets in it, and 97 jets (.045) were too much. So I split the difference and went with some .040's and they work great. Point to that whole thing is I belive a Holley 94 is a larger CFM carb than a Stomberg 97, if thats the case I'd asume they will be too much unless you mess with the jetting
Thanks Chris - Yeah that's what I was worried about. Based on the model numbers I think my 94s have a CFM rating of 155 and they are both late 40s-early 50s according to some charts I found. I believe 81s are about 125 CFM. Maybe some smaller jets would work in these 94s - I'll likely have to mess with it a bit 'till it's right. I wonder if I can find .040 jets for my 94s (or maybe even something a little smaller)?
If your still running the stock A head, even two 81's would be a bit too much for that engine. You need compresion to use all that charge. A high compresion head is the first thing that should be done to hop up a banger. then carbs, cam, metal timing gear, porting, counterbalenced crank, insert bearings, pressurized oiling system, high volume oil pump, light flywheel, Steel main caps. Well if your going to do all that work you might as well put a OHV set up on it. And it all starts with one question....How can I make my banger run faster? Ask anyone !!!!! .
what you may run into by running the 94's is the famous cutout stutter when you give it the gas at low rpm...you need a fair amount of air going through these carbs to make them pull the fuel into the spray bars properly. With larger cfm carbs you get less va*** to pull the fuel...it's not always a matter of sizing the jets down. also remember that ford carbs have a richening power valve that will over enrich the mixture with the already stated "low" va*** situation you get at idle speeds...but i could be wrong. more 2 cents worth....some of the aftermarket powervalves for the ford 94's are good for about 1 backfire. after that you might as well replace them.... was that 4 cents worth?
I have been told a 94 will work great. I prefer strombergs though and an 81 is the choice most say they would run, but I have a 97 thats been modified a bit to run myself. Crazydaddyo is right, 2 carbs on a stock banger is too much. Even if you change to a higher comp head you will need to work on the lower end or have that wonder in your head of when will it break the bottom end. Try to find a model a head with a B stamped on top and that is oem speed equipment lol. The lower high comp reproduction/speed heads are based on it. The A head stamped with a B on top had heart shaped ports originally from the factory. Have you contacted any of the clubs near you yet there in Arizona? Another thought is to maybe dummy one of the carbs. Have any of you out there tried this before? I was told by an old timer that the zypher duals can be dummied and still run fine without starving either the front or rear intake port for fuel/air. I would imagine the same would be true for other dual setups. Educate me some please.-Weeks
Thanks Chris. Yeah. I put the truck shell back on for the moment so that the coupe is still driveable and after comparing, I do like the p***enger car shell better. I also did just track down a B radiator yesterday on the internet. Not sure if it will need a new core or not. Crossing fingers that it won't!
Years ago I bought a dual manifold with 2 94's on it. When I took the carbs off they each had 1 ****erfly removed and the throttle bore plugged with a freeze plug. I never tried them. They are somewhere in the shop. The guy had them on a stock engine but was going back to stock, he said. I didn't ask how they worked but had I known that the carbs were basically single barrels I would have
Looks like a fun time! I KNOW there's a lot bigger percentage of British hot rodders "Get it" about traditional old cars than here in the States. Either that or you guys are real talented at not going anywhere near a piece of billet! I am particularly fond of the last two years of Ford's T too, and that one is a beauty. Only one problem and if you know the bloke you might point out that he has his Panhard bar bolted to the spring eye shackle bolt, causing spring bind, where he should have it attached to the other shackle bolt at the axle, controlling axle side movement. The twist in the strap is probably giving enough flex that he hasn't felt it bind and hasn't torn itself up yet.
Hey Weeks, Well, based on an earlier reccomendation from someone here I found the Model A Restorers Club of Arizona: http://www.modelarestorersclubofarizona.com/index.html Unfortunately their next meeting falls on my 25th anniversary, so I doubt I will make it to the 8/4 meeting. Some cool reading on their site. Also, Arizona Model A has a lot of cool stuff over in Gilbert. It's just been too damned hot to take the car over (which I want to do). It was 115 yesterday and similar today. They are not open on weekends so it makes getting over there tough. Tom
I was thinking of doing that with 3 carbs the 1 in the center stay 2 barrel and make the out side 2 1 barrels Bill
update, made and installed a new floor pan for my pickup today. Put my 34/35 wires on it too. looks soo much better and has a nice little rake to it.
TW Dustin - Check the Model A Restorers Club of Arizona newsletter in the website for tours they may have between now and the August general membership meeting held on the first Tuesday of the month. The 'warm' months in Zona are not the most active months with the A's because of the 115F temps but they do try for Saturday morning breakfasts that allow the hardy owner/drivers to take the A out for excercise before the sun gets to high in the sky. Also suggest you call Arizona Model A and try to arrange a time with him on the weekend. He'll accomodate you if he doesn't have another committment. He loves to sell parts! His ad is in the advertisers section of the Desert A newsletter on the MARCA website, www.marcofaz.com if you need his phone number. Good luck.
Well, I made it to Columbus GG and back on Sunday without a hitch. I guess it was about a 200 mile round trip, maybe more. Only saw one other banger on the grounds - a full fendered '28-29 roadster with a '32 grille shell. Was a nice Zephyr intake in the swap meet for $550 with two rebuildable 97s on board. Some observations - my car will run all day long at 55 MPH (Mild B engine, 3.54 rear gear). Will hit 60 once in a while if you need it. I can get it to 65 if I have enough room but it is real nervous there. I don't think I could hit 70 unless I was heading downhill... On the other hand, the car doesn't feel safe over 60 MPH so it doesn't really matter. I call it a good match and am happy to put more miles on it. But what I can't understand is how guys put SBCs in these things and run'em on the highway or dragstrip. Must be some handling improvements that come along with a boxed frame or ??? My car is real darty at 55 MPH and up, and I figure it is mostly because the rear spring is too stiff. But I don't have enough clearance to remove any more leaves (8 leaf roadster spring minus the longest leaf). I guess I could go to a flat frame (not Z-ed) and then I could remove more leaves and use a reversed eye to get to the same ride height. Any thoughts? Anybody using a panhard bar front or rear? Opinions? Anybody running banger stuff on a fully boxed frame? I wonder how much of an improvement comes from simply going to the longer wheelbase of the '32 frame? Back to the garage, Will Kimble
sounds like alignment to me if it's "darty" If you have a lot of rake on your car, but stock front wishbones, you have actually removed caster, bringing the king pins closer to 0 degrees, which will make handling worse.
Thanks Elrod. Toe is fine, I have autocrossed a LOT in the past and am very familiar with what too little or too much toe feels like. I do have a lot of rake, and haven't considered caster... I will take a look and give it some thought. Might help to clarify - the car steers GREAT and is very stable as long as the road is perfectly flat. Any bumps seriously upset the car, especially at speed. "Skitterish" might be a better description than "darty"? Another thought... I am running 7.00 X 16 Firestones on the back. To make the ride and handling bearable, I am running the rears at 15 psi. Any more pressure and the rear just skitters around. What kind of psi are you guys running in your 7.00s or 7.50s? Might be another sign that my rear spring is too stiff or ??? Thanks, Will
WILL FIMBLE.... If your shackles have play or if the spring eye width is wrong the shackle will not be at the right angle and the front end will dart all around as every thing moves. I would put a panhard bar up front my 2 cents Bill
Nearly ready for the Body to go on the frame. At this point it could run if it had Gas and Ign. Still have some shock stuff to finish up and bleed the brakes. For all the work I've done on this thing I sure hope the Banger Wind's my Spring. I had a stock A-Coupe a few years back and just couldn't get into the 50 mph (top end) world. Friends finally convinced me it was because that car was just compleatly worn out. Ya can't say that about this one and I have the Dent in my Wallet to show it. I half to say it's good to see what started as a Pile of left over **** become a Car. No real long range plan but I'm having some fun so far. The Wizzard
Thanks A-Zonie, Yes I have met Sam at AZ Model A (on a Saturday by chance) and I plan to find a time to get over and meet up with him again now that I have picked up this car. I have another complete '29 ch***is and body parts from a "gas ration pickup" that got me into this whole Model A thing in the first place - I think it's an addiction. I will likely try to find some MARCA events to go to - it sounds like a good group and there seem to be guys there with some mods which is cool. What town are you in? I am in Chandler near Alma School and Germann (just south of Santan Fwy). Thanks again, Tom
I pie cut my wishbones and added castor after I split them. I'm running 5.50x19's in the rear @ 32 psi, and 4.50x19's in the front @ 32psi. I was running 55mph smooth and straight, even on bumpy surfaces.
I took my shell to the radiator shop and had them fit it to my 30 radiator. The shell I have is filled so I had them put the fill neck inside. In what way did the radiator interfere with the shell. I haven't tried mine on the car as it is off the frame.
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