My good friend spent the long dollar and had his '65 Mustang restored. The car is stunning, but is not dialed in - bucks and tugs at idle. He's looking for a second opinion among Mustang tuners - west side of Michigan is preferred. Any suggestions? Yes, that's his car and his house. Living the "Mad Men" dream.....
No Ford geeks stepping up? This is a sweet little ride, not PSMCDR material but fixed up as close to new as is reasonable. Simple little two barrel auto car, needs somebody who can make it run as good as it looks. The current "engine guy" is doing things like swapping jets to cure an idle problem. Now he thinks it's the torque converter - maybe? Does anybody have an operating Sun Tune?
I can't help with the issue, but I have to comment on the picture. Awesome looking car and house!:kodak:
Id start with checking for vacuum leaks and do a good tune up.. Check the vacuum if it bounces on the gauge or steady.. check the timing at 3 and 4 grand.( so ALL total is in ).. A place to start atleast
Vacuum gauge, timing light and a dwell meter. A can of WD-40 or something to spray at potential vacuum leaks and make a proper diagnosis. I live in California, so I'm not available to look it over. There must be a competent mechanic near him that can do it. Torque converter? Sounds like the guy is grasping at straws. Doesn't take a "Ford geek" to diagnose basic idle and performance issues, just a competent mechanic.
I have offered to take a look at the car and do the basic trouble shooting. The good thing is that it's supposed to be "all stock", and I have the tools to check out the timing. On the other hand I know for a fact that the car and distributor are "rebuilt" and maybe not original, jets have been swapped, etc. so somebody who works on Fords may have better insight than I would. My friend is not a car guy. He paid for the restoration and was convinced that the car would be perfect because of the money he spent. He's now looking for somebody else to tune the car and restore his faith in mechanics. I don't necessarily want to become the go-to guy to keep his baby purring but I'll see if I can help out.
(Seriously, anybody who changes jets to fix an idle issue ought to have their face stuck into a spinning engine fan.) I'm no expert on Ford V8's, but I know Ford inline 6's pretty well, and the small 2-bbl V8's aren't that different carb-n-distributor-wise...here's my $.03... First off, since you say 2-bbl carb I'm assuming it's either a 260 or 289 V8 - correct? Stock carb ought to be an Autolite 2100, which looks like this: And the Autolite 2100 is flat-out one of the best 2-bbls EVER made, hands down. Once they're set up, if you keep a good filter ahead of it, it'll last forever and ever amen Second, there's an off chance that it has the abomination that was Ford's "Load-O-Matic" ignition advance system, which drew the distributor vacuum advance from a "Spark Control Valve" in the side of the carburetor rather than the manifold. I forget if that was an I6-only thing, hopefully so (it's crap). Looking online I'm finding conflicting information on whether Ford used the L-O-M on V8's up to '67, or just on the I6's.Easy way to tell is to look all over the carb and see if it has a "Spark Control Valve", they look like this (Autolite 1-bbl, but the SCV's all look the same). If it has the L-O-M, let me know - unless he's wanting to keep it absolutely stock, I *highly* recommend swapping dizzy's for a later modern vacuum advance type. Third, as with any "rebuilt" carb, there is no telling how badly screwed up it is, but you'd be safe in assuming that it needs everything looked at (worn throttle shafts?) and properly adjusted. Best bet is to search the internet and find the stock jets, etc, and put it all back to bone-stock. Autolite 2100's are pretty simple animals, ought to be straightforward. Fourth, regarding the distributor, again you'll want to check everything, from shaft play to the vacuum advance canister. Ford was notorious for playing mix-and-match with parts, and their part numbers only indicate what year that part was first used, so "numbers matching" and "correct part number" really don't have much meaning when it comes to Fords. Plus Ford would have the "same" distributor with 2 or 4 different advance curves built in, And it's been "rebuilt", so the bottom line is that there is NO telling what advance curve, total advance, or whatever is in there. The good news is that they are fairly easy to work on and 'build your own curve' Fifth, I'd confirm that the outer ring on the harmonic balancer isn't slipping or walking around. On the I6's, it's pretty common to see even a reasonably newish one start walking, which makes setting the timing impossible. The V8's might not do that, but I'd check just in case.
Thanks James, this is great information. I appreciate the benefit of your experience, this is the V8Buick board at it's best!
Being a fresh resto have him use a propane torch (unlit of course) to look for a vacuum leak. That way he won't discolor any paint with chemicals.. Works just as good too.
I had a '66 F100 back in the eighties that ran rough as a cob at idle but would clean up with rpm. Seemed counter intuitive but it was the points. I have seen the vacuum advance cause rough running or stumble but it's been off idle.
Well said. With all the Fords i have owned these were bullet proof carbs and never had issue with any of them. That said is he looking to keep it original? If not then he should just opt for a reman carb ready to go, swap out that dizzy for a loaded reman unit and retime it. That would eliminate many possible issues to start with.
I disagagree that a reman carb would be a good idea - nobody knows what's inside them anymore, you'd be trading one unknown for another. Now a new Holley 2-bbl, or an Autolite from somebody -highly- reputable is another matter.
Problem is solved and James was right in his last post. The "engine guy" supplied a numbers matching rebuilt carb to replace the non-original but similar carb that was on the car. After two weeks of messing around he swapped the "old" carb back in and the car runs like a champion. Thanks for all of your advice and comments.
