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Great, I will save the money on the tach then and use it elsewhere.
Cold start just now, fired up and idle fine, choke opened all the way and idle seemed OK. Lights on and the idle did not drop, into gear, idle dropped and then back into park it came back up.
My one remaining question right now, what would a vacuum leak sound like? by any chance could it be a high pitch whistling sound?
A high pitch whistling could very well be a vacuum leak. Carb cleaner or brake clean sprayed where the suspected leak is, and you should hear the engine rev up a bit.
Pulled the distributor out yesterday to install a new vacuum advance, no way no how it was coming off with the distributor on the engine, I made a couple marks, but in the grease and gunk built up back there plus the location I am not all that confident in them being exactly right. So, I plan to pick up a timing light and learn how to time an engine which from watching a couple videos seems straight forward enough. The piece that I am not sure on though, the sticker on the firewall says "16 degrees BTC" so BTC = Before Top Center. Looking at the timing marks though, they go from (what I assume to be) 10 degree before to 10 degree after.
So, how do I know when I am at 16 degrees?
Additionally to that, on the before side, anything past 10 degrees is hidden by a part of the engine, so even if there were a line for 16 degrees, I can't see it.
The distributor is back in, lined it up hopefully in the same spot, only 1 mark I had made was still remaining, so we will see how that goes. But, it is in with a new vacuum advance, just need to find time to fire it up and check the timing.
Last edited by Abcdefghii; 04-29-2024 at 12:27 PM.
I've never heard of a 318 having such an advanced timing setting. Is this a factory sticker? 318s are usually around 5 degrees before. Worst case scenario is set it at 10 degrees before and try it out for pinging.
Get the adjustable timing light....
When you get it all hooked up... Set the Timing light to +16*....
When you are aiming it at the timing pointer and dampner.... When you see it on the 0 mark... You will have set it to 16*...
I'm thinking that engine was swapped out because the timing cover doesn't even allow you to access 16 degrees, or somebody changed the sticker with the timing setting. I think his timing light is a static nonadjustable one.
The timing light I have does indeed have the advance dial on the back of it, so I can at least get it to 16 degrees should I need to, when I get to it, I will initially try at 16 degrees and go from there.
First though, getting the carb rebuilt, found a guy in town who can rebuild it for $125, figured since I have no idea when it was done that it makes sense to get that completed. New gas cap should arrive tomorrow, so hopefully when the carb rebuild is complete, I can add the new gas cap, set the timing and hopefully, drive the heck out of it.
Done already, the one that was on there likely only had about 100 miles on it, but I went ahead and put in a new one already. I actually need to find a tighter clamp from the small rubber piece coming out of the filter leading up the hard metal line to the carb, noticed a tiny bit of fuel leaking there.
Decided to try a little elbow grease on the paint, it'll never be perfect without a respray, but it's at least cleaning up nicely and getting a little shine.
Just the door and bed side are done in the pictures.
Carb rebuild is done, hoping to pick it up after work today... from talking to the guy, I am a little surprised the truck ran as well as it did, even running rich... "Was this underwater?" [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img]
He said there was a good amount of rust inside the carb, the float was no good, a couple pieces (I forget what) that were supposed to move did not and so on. Explained that the fuel tank was cracked when I bought the truck, which surmised that was where the moisture got into the fuel and so into the carb.
All cleaned up now and rebuilt, ready to go back on the truck.
Finished up cleaning the paint yesterday, well, except inside the bed and a few small spots around the windows. It came out surprisingly well, the hood and the roof, unsurprisingly, are the worst areas and did not clean up as well as the vertical surfaces. Will be nice to see how it looks out in the sun, supposed to rain most of this weekend, but I am semi hopeful to get it running and at least out for a short drive.
Yup, those carbs by design are set to corrode. The bowls on both sides are recessed downwards with the jets sitting slightly elevated. Crud and junk collect in the bowl and corrode. Not a bad idea to run a carb cleaner through the fuel every so often.
Carb is back on, looks brand new. Really happy with the result, the guy said he was surprised the truck ran at all with how bad it was. Could have talked to him for hours, 77 years old, literally 300+ carbs hanging from the walls in his garage, 2019 Bullitt he brought brand new parked next to a favorite of mine... 62 Ford Econoline pick up.
Truck is not running yet though, I noticed oil around the valve covers so picked up new gaskets, but decided that I should repaint the valve covers before putting them back on. I wanted to just slap them back on with the new gaskets and get it running, but they look terrible, since they are off the truck, it makes sense to take the time now to clean them and paint them. Soon though.
Cleaned the covers up as much as I could with what I had on hand, 3 coats of paint, they don't look wonderful, but better than they did. I somewhat weighed with the decision of trying to find somewhere to sand blast them, possibly meaning another week without being able to use the truck, but decided I would rather drive it. Worst case, the paint ends up looking terrible like it did before.
Quick question.. the manual I have here says to add a thin bead of RTV in the valve cover, then put the gasket on, let it set up for a bit and then install the cover with the gasket stuck to the engine. Is that the best way to go about it? I have the rubber fel pro gasket set, I know some people swear by RTV and others hate it. I do have some, but if it is not needed or detrimental, I won't use it.
I've used RTV on the valve cover side and had great luck. It gets a bit sloppy and tricky when you put it on the head or gasket side that touches the head. I would just do the valve cover to gasket contact and don't overtighten the cover. You can always retighten after a short time of running. Note: When using cork never use RTV it's almost a certain leak.
Started it up yesterday, high idle a little low so adjusted that, after it warmed up then needed to adjust the curb idle. Sounded pretty good overall, still sounds like a vacuum leak from the rear of the carb. There's just a whistle for about 1 second when opening the throttle up.
Oil pressure gauge was working nicely, looked to be sitting right about 50psi.
I had to fix a fuel leak where the metal line connects to the rubber piece at the filter, but that looks to be the biggest issue so far. No leaks from the valve covers.
Later today I'll start it up again and make sure the idle is good and check the timing. If that's all good then it's a test drive and check for any leaks again.
Getting closer... so buttoned all back up and the truck would click, but not start. I had read timing being way off can do this, but found it a little odd, surely my marks were not that wrong on the distributor. Anyway, I used a jump pack which got it to start right away.
The engine runs smoothly at 16 degrees, but at least to my ear, sounded really nice at 10 degrees. During trying to set the timing, I noticed white smoke from the rear of the engine, shut it down to investigate and could see nothing out of that ordinary. Decided to try starting the engine again, but watch that area carefully for more smoke, and it still does not start from the key. I did notice that at this point the battery was reading low, so again jumped it to get it started, with the engine running it appeared to be charging, so went back to timing, at least until the exhaust started smoking again. Not sure yet where I will eventually have the timing set at, I may see how it runs around 8 degrees, but at least I have some practice now in both listening for changes while turning the distributor and seeing how the light works on the harmonic balancer.
So, with it smoking again I shut it down, looking carefully I noticed oil coming down from the valve cover and onto the exhaust manifold. Smoke source discovered, tightened the bolts on the cover a little and left it overnight.
This morning I decided to try and see a date on the battery, found one, it is from 2016. Pulled the battery and swapped in a new one before starting work today. While I am not sure if it is the entire source of my not being able to start it without the jump pack, a part of me believes that if the timing were way off, then surely the jump pack would not make any difference to starting it? Using the jump pack there were no real issues starting, maybe a slight drag, but it started, so I think I am at least in the ballpark for timing.
Anyone agree with my logic that if the timing were so bad it would not start with the battery, that the jump pack would not make any difference?
Advanced timing won't cause just a click. Advanced timing causes a drag while starting. 8 year old battery is not good. With a good battery you could take it from there.
04-26-2024, 11:56 AM
