I picked up a Lincoln 317 with an auto transmission a couple weeks ago, however it was missing a few things. It was also set up with a 2 barrel intake. I have since found a 4 BBL intake with the old Holley teapot carb on it, but it will need to be rebuilt if I go that route. My question to you is what would you recommend for a new carburator and distributor or should I go about getting my old carb rebuilt. Also the engine being set up as a 2 barrel do I need to change the distributor for a 4 barrel or is it good to go? Itll be going in a 1930 model A pick up, and I don't need this to be a powerful power plant, just want to get it in running order I basically want to see what others have done so I can get this thing running!
Keeping the transmission , as I've heard it's quite a lot of work to put any sort of standard transmission on this engine. @mgtstumpy just have to figure out a floor shifter for it
Yes! A fan of the Lincoln Y blocks! A couple of things you might want to do: Get 55-57 Lincoln exhaust manifolds. They fit and give you dual exhaust capabilities. The other is getting some of the cast aluminum valve covers from 56-57 Continentals, or 57 Mercury turnpike cruiser with 368 Lincoln Y block. About the only thing I can mention about the transmission is the long tailshaft. If you are putting in a small wheelbase vehicle, you may have a steep driveline angle. If that is the case, you may want to either get the short tail hydramatic and swap bell housing and fluid coupling stuff, or find the short tail shaft and housing and change that out on your present transmission. Finally, don't change out the transmission with a Fordomatic! Their not as performance minded as the hydramatic you have. Good luck.
If you keep the tea kettle be sure and find someone who has some idea what they are looking at to rebuild it for you. You don't have to change the distributer to go to a 4 bbl carb, and I don't remember what is a direct swap for those carbs, maybe a Carter WCFB or a Rochester 4 jet. I think that there was a later autolite carb that is a direct replacement. Someone on here will remember for sure though. The hydro matic is a good tranny like D2 said don't replace it with a fordomatic.
I don't know. Is this a vacuum advance, only, distributor? If so I might look for a later model Ford Y block distributor, or a Mallory. Which is what I am using. You will need the distributor drive gear from your Lincoln distributor to work. Or you can buy a new drive gear for a 390 Ford from Rock Auto or somebody. I would probably adapt the mainafold to a 650 cfm Holley or some such. The Lincoln aluminum valve covers are cool and I understand go for around $200. The Merc covers are made of unubatainiem and priced accordingly. I am told that FE flywheel and bellhousing can be made to work on the Lincoln. Header flanges are out there and reground cams along with pretty much everything you need,
Holley teapot carb kits are pretty reasonable. The carb is very easy to rebuild. The 317 disty has a single vacuum advance, where as the 368 disty has a dual vacuum advance. Why, who knows? You may be able to adapt 58 and up Ford Holley carbs to fit. That would be what I would look into.
I actually ran a pair of tea pots on my 312 way back in the late '60s when I went from a 3x2 to two 4s. Yes easy to work on and got a bad rep because people who had no idea what they were doing were working on them. Not a lot different than today when people who loose their jobs as printer techs became mechanics. LOL I guess that was my point. I'll bet if one looks around there is a Mallory distributer that works on that motor and probably isn't something like dual vac advance. Just a straight forward anyone can deal with it distributer. But I digress, anyone can learn anything that is necessary to keep one alive if they apply themselves. I probably should have mentioned this before that is a neat engine for a hotrod. you don't see many of them used and they were made to move a heavier car around so it won't take much to make it a good pusher for a light truck.
So I was quoted $265.00 for a local guy to rebuild the whole carb, is that reasonable? I almost want to go on a buy and sell site and find a good used carb, it's just I don't know which carb to be looking for. So far I've been recommended a Holley 390 cfm and a Holley 650 cfm. Even in my searches I only find that people either really do them up with 2 or 3 carbs or they just rebuilt the tea pot. I haven't found a straight 4 barrel swap. But still I think the old tea pot is very cool. Might have to bite the bullet on that 265 bucks! More than I spent on the whole engine and transmission combined
Get a rebuild kit and a can of McQuays carb cleaner and gopher it! It took me longer to clean, then to dissassemble and reassemble. Look online, you should be able to find a kit for about $50. Take the $215 saving and use it on other things like new valve covers, and better disty.
A 390 Holley? That is what I have on my 2.8 liter Ford V6. I would think a 600 or 650 Vacuum secondary Holley would be fine. Or keep the tea pot. I am sticking with the Hilborns.
I've always called em refered to as "Bird Cage carbs". I'd go with the try is your self mode. Ifthe guys good, he'll be able to pick up the pieces. Might even not charge the "Tried it yourself first, rate". I'd say 265 is fair(ish). My daughter just paid 160 for a Motorcraft 2100 two bbl to be rebuilt. It was missing some pieces.
Not a bad idea! I've only ever rebuilt small engine carbs, like my snowmobiles and atvs, how hard could it be!? But if it comes down to it I can just bring the guy my carb in a box of pieces lol just kidding! in going to have a look for a rebuild kit online right now
2100 rebuild for $160. Wow, I need to start rebuilding them things and make some money! 2100 rebuild, I can do that in the sleep! Really easy carb to rebuild!
d2--It was missingsome parts,not unreasonably though. Whoda thunk there would be a market for that, at that level, for that price????!!!!!!!!!! The little parts chick at the humongo chain couldnt computer me up a kit for mine. They made what, FOUR MILLION OF EM AT LEAST?????
Soooo here's the deal, this is the response from the gentleman I am working with as to what I should do about my carb situation. Let me know if you agree "Your present carb is about 350 cfm. 600 cfm is too big for your motor and will not run right and with all the extra gas will wash the cylinders and in time cause motor problems. Most people with the 55 56 t-birds with a 312 motor if the decide to go not original use the 390 Holley. Your original carb was designed for your car and is the right cfm unless the motor has been altered. If you decide not to rebuild your carb and buy the 390 or another carb I would be able to give you $75.00 for your carb core." Sounds legit to me and reasonable, however I would like to hear some of your 2 cents!
Going on my experience alone, I say baloney. Lets think about Bernelle's principal and how fuel gets sucked from the float bowl into the intake.
Rich makes a very good point, and if you need a little back reading on Bernoulli's principle, here you go. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli's_principle My experience for basic street driven hot rod (mild cam, headers, 8.5:1 compression +/- a point) motors in the 300 to 400 ci range, the basic 600 cfm Holley 4 barrel is almost always right on. Yes, the jets, power valve, idle mixture, or secondary springs / linkage may have to be adjusted or changed to optimize the fuel curve, but as long as you aren't running a huge cam or wild intake (i.e. tunnel ram) the 600 is a really good size carb. I have the dyno numbers to prove it as well. My 352 FE was run on the dyno with a 450, 600, and 750. The 600 produced the best power curve of all 3 across the entire power band (2,000 to 4,500 rpms), no matter what was done with jetting or adjustments on the other 2 carbs. FYI, if your washing down cylinders with fuel, that is not a necessarily carb size problem, that is a jetting or valving problem.
Any updates to your Lincoln 317 project? I thought I had some more up to date photos but I need to take some new ones to post. Here is my Lincoln 317 in a '56 f100. It's a mix of car and truck parts that just works. Rams Horn manifolds and the fan setup is from a large Ford Truck, there is a 4 barrel intake under there with a Holley 4000 "teapot" carb, the air cleaner is an industrial unit from a compressor found in a junkyard. Bell housing, flywheel, and clutch setup are from a large Ford Truck, I'm running a T98 4 speed currently. Since these photos, I've swapped the carb to an Edelbrock 1405 600cfm with an adapter plate from Napa. Distributor was swapped for a Cardone rebuilt 30-2808 for a '57+ Ford Y block need to swap the the drive gear on the bottom, newer oil pump for the hex drive on the distributor.
You probably know by now that the 2bbl carbed 317(Lincoln) was 1952 only('53 up were 4bbl). For a better manifold I would suggest that you go to a Truck/Commercial Vehicle Salvage Yard & look for F-8 Ford trucks '57 to '64 for a 4bbl manifold : it already has the "modern" Holley pattern mounting flange(you might look at the 'ram-horn' exhaust manifolds as well : they flow better & look much better on a 'rod')! The Hydramatic Trans with a short tail-housing was used in some mid-'50's Chevy & GMC trucks as well as a number of military & industrial vehicles(& was built with MUCH better internals : Look for other threads about this trans.) In any case : Replace the front & rear main seals in this transmission before you install it, because servicing one of these in a vehicle is a major PIA!!! For a easy hop-up use '56-'57 heads & cam(whole valvetrain)to get bigger valves& better cam to go with the intake/exhaust manifolds. Hope this helps!!
The valve covers in your pics have had the paint stripped from them. The colors for '52 were: black cover(wrinkle finish also looks good),"Lincoln" 'topped' in white, "V-eight" 'bottomed' in bright red. The '53-'55(?) were the gold that everybody thinks they should be.(the only reason I know any or all this "crap" is because I have an original '52 Cosmopolitian coupe.) LOL!!
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