So its been awhile since ive been on. Just thought I would share some of my dumb luck. So I have never built a car and when I did mine I learned a whole hell of alot! Lets just say it is a neverending learning experience. So about a month ago I was out enjoying a nice summer day with my wonderful wife cruising the '54. We were about a mile from home at the end of the day and the car quit.... Did some roadside investigating and found I had no spark. So I figured it must be the aftermarket HEI I installed. I bought mine from Skip White performance. I did some research to pin point the issue being the HEI itself. Not just the module. So I called up SWP and come to find out it had a lifetime warranty!! Score!! So I boxed mine up sent it back and got a new one. I was only out the shipping on the bad one back to them. So I took a half hour or so to install the new one. Got it all setup and the car fired right away! BUT....it only ran for like 20-30 seconds. So i started it back up.....ran for about 10 seconds. HMMMMMMM...... Started it again, barely started and quit right away.... So I have spark. But no fuel at the carb. So I have two clear fuel filters inline in my system. One at the tank and one at the carb. At the carb was bone dry. At the tank, plenty of fuel. So I trace it up to my mech. fuel pump. Plenty of fuel at the pump. So I figure it must be the pump. Easy!! Two bolts, a trip to the store-DONE! But before heading out to the store I decided just to "bench test" the pump. I put it in the vice and operated the arm manually just to see if there is pressure either way. There was plenty of pressure. At this point im thinking about the whole thing. For kicks I decided to stick a screw driver into the fuel pump opening on the timing cover on my 302 just to see if the eccentric was still on the end of the cam, or if I broke a timing chain. As I hit the eccentric with my screw driver it sounds like a little bell ringing......(loose bolt). The eccentric has loosened up enough where the eccentric is not tight enough to turn and operate the fuel pump arm anymore! WTF!! So like I wrote earlier...this has been a learning process for me the whole time. What I learned this time is the proper use of lock***e......When I swapped my motor over to Carb from EFI I also installed a new double roller timing chain and new sprockets. Well I didnt know at the time, but know now that I should have put lock***e on the bolt holding the eccentric on to the end of the cam. So the worst part is what its going to take to tighten one f'n bolt! Pull the water pump, alternator, oil pan, crank pulley, radiator and the timing cover. Along with all new gaskets etc.... Lets just say when I found all of this out I put my cover on the car and im waiting for a ****py rainy fall day to tackle this little bolt. It ****s but I have always learned by making mistakes and figuring them out. Just thought you guys might get a kick out of a "younger" guy messing up and learning the hard way!!! Baggs
It's been my experience that age has little to do with "messing" up. You seem pretty savvy to have figured out the problem before throwing a lot of money at it. I am impressed.
Wow that's a tough way to learn. But we all do it. I think that's just part of this hobby/lifestyle. There is always new things to learn, and better ways of doing things.
Like my recent escapade with my gas tank install last week. Success teaches you nothing. Always good to figure it out for yourself.
Another thing to watch out for besides the bolt is if you have the wrong length pin in the camshaft. And The complete video set of the "302 Ford budget build" is on youtube also a link to it is in the "FAQ Sticky" file.
Not that I'm glad this happened to you, but its shared items like this that make even more novice guys like me appreciate this group. Had it not been for your mistake, I would not have the knowledge to do it the right way the first time with lock***e.
any late-model SBF could have had factory EFI. the 302 i put in my '71 GT Torino came out of an '89 Mercury Colony Park and had EFI; i backdated it to 4v. used the external dress from a number of older Fords.
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