Pulling my hair out, FE Probs. SHOULDA USED A SBC

How bout a Duraspark dist. and a MSD?
Agreed, Duraspark ECM's are trash.

 

See, I knew it couldn't be the PerTronix!

 

What is causing it to drop cylinders? That's wild, I don't think I ever saw anything like that except with a sheared distributor pin, or a reluctor that didn't have the clip in it and the sprinds had come off it and was walking all over. Holy smokes!

 

I love my Durasparks too, but that one has something else wrong. I'm looking forward to finding out Bubba's findings.

 

Ok guys i didnt have a whole lot of time today but will as the week goes on> In answer to Bills wonder what was causing the cylinders to mis fire a couple issues cause this.
One the condensor is causing a contact arc and when the arc is large enough the cylinder didnt see the make / break etc. The other issue is the contacts are pretty burnt up and dry as well. They bounce a little bit on the cam.
Heres what i have found so far:
The part number and the parts inside the distributor make it a early 332-352-390 industrial distributor. I used to work on some of these and they were in a power plant , large truck, military etc.
The contacts are mounted on a ball bearing upper plate and the advance weights are prestolite ( lite early chrysler).
The curve before and the desired are shown below.
I put it in the cuda water blast and will retrive from the "hot tub" in the morning. The curve is way off from wear, dirt and oil vapors etc.as well as mis adjustment. Note springs are bent way outward. ( old ford trick to stop spark knock)...









This is the present spark curve........ Plot is every 200 rpm from idle of 600 rpm)..



This is the spec card for a 390 Police Intercepter engine ( the way it should be)

 

This is awesome. Bubba, I always enjoy your posts, mucho informative. Seems like you have too much fun doing these.

 

bubba, this dosent suprise me, if you met the guy i got this whole car from you would understand. if you wanna talk about parts from everywhere, the guy runs a wrecking yard...
I had assumed that it was just a stock 58 Edsel Distributor, hence the Early statuus, and the vacuum advance with the threaded fitting.
let me know if you need anything...

~Aaron

 

Looks like a Mopar distributor.

 

I have one of those in a drawer, I am pretty sure its a Y-block though, if you need anything let me know. Man that pattern is a sick puppy! Thanks.

 

No, long story but I have been known to have done some major repiar work to find out it was a weak coil.....so that is my first response for everything.

 

Well guys another short day with meetings etc. However i did get the FE cleaned up and back on the test machine. The stock springs ( below) was a little like a barn door spring ( the big one) and after three trys i ended up using one from the curve kit and the light one from the stock distributor.
Ever find some of these old spring kits at the local swap meet , buy them up for a few bucks and send them to me , cant get some of them anymore. I will trade ya some hot sauce or a t shirt etc for them.










Hows that for 14-15 degrees at 4000.....Interceptor Spec card...right on !!!



Just clean helps.........



Before and after today..............



Just in case anyone thought the coil was defective. Dakota sent it along for the ride as well. I use a 5/16 copper line in the coil tower on my tester. You could weld with this one.......

Bubbas tech tip of the day ::: Electricity wont hurt you ! Its the back of your neck going thru the hood latch that ruins your day !!!!

 

Bubba, how much advance does the vacuum pull...And when?

 

wow, Kick ass bubba...

 

Beautiful work! I am looking forward to getting mine to you.

 

Congrats on getting it figured out.

When I first had my 390 I got two wires crossed, BUT, talk about embarassment...
When I rebuilt my 390 I had "remembered" the direction of rotation of my distributor wrong.
My firing order was in exactly the wrong direction.
Then when I got that straightened out, I had the C-6 linkage mis-adjusted do "Park" was actually reverse. So when it actually started right up, I almost took out a section of the garage wall with my front bumper!

(and to add to the embarassment, I'm supposed to have a PhD in mechanical engineering, specializing in internal combustion engines)

 

We all make mistakes Dakota. I would reccomend a 735 cfm 3310, or a 750 DP. I have run both and they are sweet. I am running Edelbrocks right now, a 750 on he car and an 800 on the truck because I traded around and got them pretty reasonable, the 800 was free because a friend of mine friend just hated Edelbrocks even though it made close to 600 hp on his 460. I took it apart and cleaned it out, it was full of machining crap. I am happy with it, I am probably making 1 hp per cube with my .020 over 390, through the pipes on the truck. Its pretty strong. But a Holley is a better, more tuneable carb if you know a few tricks. Barry Robotnick at Survival Motorsprts used to work for Holley and and knows every trick in the book. Hes had the most powerful FE at Engine masters every year for a awhile.

I have a 750 DP downleg booster with an 850 baseplate (alot like a 950 HP Holley, it flows about 830 cfm) thats going on my roller motor when I get it done. It was on a 428 that was running in the high 10's. My Galaxie, I'll be happy with mid 11s.

 

Heres the chart for a 63 390 ci Police Interceptor

8" = 1-3 deg
10" = 2-5 deg
12"= 4-7 deg
20"= 4-7 deg
Max 7 1/2 degrees
These are distributor degrees and need to be doubled to obtain engine degrees.

 

Nice!
So 15 deg. centrifugal and 15 vacuum should be 30 total advance, 8-10 initial?
My feeling is that the stock distributors have too much advance. I use a Motorcraft Duraspark in my racer that I have welded up the advance slot and filed open to allow 20 degrees of (crankshaft) advance (used a degree wheel/admires your distributor machine). With the light springs I get a total at about 2500RPM.
Thanks Bubba for posting the pics, my apologies Dakota for hyjacking the thread.

 

That is nothing but awesome. You better put a hose, Dakota, out the window so you dont pee yourself the first time you punch it. That is going to be sweet!

 

im excited. im waiting for the gaskets to show up, the first pic im gonna post is it all put together on the stand, the next will be the burnout im gonna do in my drivewway.

 

A compression check could have told you whether it was mechanical or electrical/fuel, I think thats the point he was trying to make.If you had not bad,but low compression across the board, it shows timing faults, where if the compression was good across the board, it would point more towards electrical or fuel issues.Glad you found the problem, I'll admit I have a 390 sittin in the corner, but opted for the sbc,for now.This thread is a great wealth of info though.

 

i posted this on another thread but i thought id add it up here.

heres what it looks liek all put together.

Thanks again Jim!

 

Put a kit in it to advance cam
ford loved to put cam in retarded dont have a clue why they did that. good luck. yes to degree wheel.

 

You know we are expecting video when the Ed gets right with the powers that be?

Looks great!

 

Please tell us that's primer.....

 

Look, that is the Factory Edsel engine color.... and i will NEVER paint anything ford blue.

 

I read the post front to back, being curious what it was going in, now you mention a 58 edsel, do you have a pic. i have a 59 2d hardtop ranger It has a 292 now and I have thought of going with an FE for a while but there is nothing that beats the sound of this y block with short smithy's. I love hearing about all the tricks on the y blocks so that is what is keeping me from doing a swap. How bout some pics of the car, Joe

 

Keep us posted on how it runs will you.