Projects Joe's American Graffiti Coupe with a Man A Fre (Milner Coupe Clone)

When you get extra time go on e bay and buy your self some leather accelerator pumps for your 2 barrel carbs, you will never have to replace them........ever. Couple of good places on e bay to buy your jets from to, your jets are way to big for this set up. I like your project. I wish you the most success. Fun project for sure. Make sure you soak the leather accelerator pumps in some oil , not much , just a little will do.

 

Ok. I'll look into that. Thank you.

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At this point we are thinking that the single point distributor and OEM coil are not providing enough spark. Considering the large cam, 10.5 to 1 compression, and four carburators we're going to add a Petronix HEI and flame thrower coil and see what happens. What do y'all think?

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I’ve had the Pertronix 3 stock look distributor and their recommended coil in the 350 in my ‘56 for several years now and it works great. But I don’t think lack of spark intensity is your problem, still got the 60 jets in there?


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Thinking and trying are two different things. Try single points first. Didn't Moriarity say not to fix a lot of things at one time?

 

How about repaint and reupholster while you're at it?

 

I do have blocked power valves and 60 jets.

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Already reupholstered the interior. Done that about 3 months ago. Here's photos of the process....

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He did. This is the next step my friends wanted to go to....they have always suspected there was a problem with the distributor.

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To add about single points. No matter the ignition source to any type of explosion requires to proper oxygen to fuel for maximum affect.

 

I know I'm a little late to the party, and I don't want to speak out of turn, but as far as the distributor goes, it will be just fine. I noticed in your pic that the breaker cam appears to have no lube, possibly causing pre-mature wear on the rubbing block itself, causing the points to close, possibly causing the popping you mentioned, at speed. It looks to be a nylon wear block on the points, they wear fast with no lube. Maybe try to find a good set of vented points with a phenolic rubbing block, lube the breaker cam, and see if that cures the popping at speed. The rest is carburation. You might also want to put in a new set of spark plugs so you can get a good read on what is going on from cylinder to cylinder. Just thinkin' out loud...

 

^^^^^ It's a cast iron unit as well.

 

I agree. Still experimenting....

Please, any advice is appreciated!

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Will do. Thank you!

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When we had our telephone conversation, I told you I was staying out of this thread, as I have no experience with the Man-A-Fre.

Am going to jump in on a point not related to tuning.

Once you get the system running to your satisfaction; consider bending permanent metal fuel lines. The long lines such as you have just plain scare me; whether they are plastic or modern ethanol resistant whatever. Makes it difficult to even look at an otherwise very interesting system. Metal lines don't flop in the breeze, get tangled in the fan, or other nasty scenarios, and are simply not that difficult to bend.

Moriarity - for my own education, do you have the power valves blocked in your set-up; or are you still running power valves? If you are, did you adjust/replace the springs on the power valve control valves in the airhorns?

Jon.

 

Moriarity - Thanks, that explains your comment about the .060 jets being 10 numbers too large.

Nicholas Coe - You mentioned your power valves are blocked, with 0.060 jets.

Do you have the power valves which could be reinstalled?

I understand blocking the power valves on a trailered drag car, and I still have no experience with the Man-A.Fre. However, we found when we were building Rochester 2-barrels for circle track use, there was a huge advantage in tuning the power circuit on any track where the driver had to lift on the corners. Other than the afore-mentioned trailered drag car, or end carbs on a progressive tripower, I have found no other reason to ever block the power valves. Maybe a salt flats racer would be another case. Blocking the valves pretty much guarantees the carb(s) will be too rich at anything other than WOT. Something to consider.

We also found on the smaller circle tracks we could noticeably improve lap times by narrowing the choke shafts, pop-riveting in the choke plates, and locking the choke plates in the wide open position; rather than removing the chokes completely.

Jon.

 

"Experimenting", in the world science, and yes even working on engines is a science. Never does one over lap stages of work together. To do so can lead to worsening of situation. Now!, if lucky when changing all things at one time. What fixed the situation of several repairs made at the same time? Listen to Moriarity and baseline to the specs. he's given.

 

Negative. I am a proponent of electronic ignition, but the truth is a single point distributor that is working correctly will provide plenty of spark to fire the mixture. Just make sure it is operating properly, don't replace it; at least not because you think a single point distributor provides insufficient spark.

 

On page 1 of this post there is a picture of the manifold on the engine, and right below it is a picture of a Man A Fre set up on a table (the pic with the kids bike) They appear to be different manifolds. Then the last picture appears to be of a completely different manifold, greasy carbs that are not bolted to the manifold. Am I mistaken?

 

Here is an old post on Man a Fre that might help.https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/man-a-fre-sbc-manifold.288242/ From a earlier post I remember a few more things we ran power valves on 3 carbs. The carb on 5 and 7 was different because those cylinders fire consectively the rest have 2 cylinders between them. the 5-7 carb needs to be richer some people even ran a bigger carb in that position. you will need to set the power valves for 6 to 8 " idle vacuum. Tow more sites that might help https://video.search.yahoo.com/sear...=83411c2726c90b0457cef631cfb37db4&action=view http://hotrodcarbs.com/store/new-rochester-carburetor-parts.html

 

Looks like too many chiefs & not enuff Indians, and who the hell routed the fuel lines...?

 

Yes. You are correct. The one on the car is the same as the greasy one. That photo was prior to restoration. The one on the table is a duplicate set up built by the same guy.

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Thank you! I'll definitely look into that source. The larger or richer carb at 5&7 makes sense.

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I am still running the power valves with the stock springs. I think a big part of the problem with the setup we are talking about here is too much camshaft. but I am not there and have not heard it run so it is all guesswork on my part[/QUOTE]Yes. I do agree. It is most likely the cam that is causing most of our problems. The power valves were blocked due to the very low vacuum at idle. We were thinking that they were not properly closing and therefore dumping fuel at idle. We went with much larger jets after blocking the power valves to get back the throttle response. We could certainly be wrong here. We do have everything needed to return to regular power valves and much smaller jets. Thank you so much for your advice and guidance.

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Crazy lines I know. I've had several people concerned about them. Unfortunately that is how they were routed on the movie car. That's not a real reason to keep them though. Those just happen to be a favorite part of the car for me.

Here's the movie car before different carbs were added. Note the terrible shape the car was in due to neglect. Several things had been stolen and damaged.

Here's mine next to the original...

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Your car looks really good. I am looking for the Graffiti Style steering wheel. You wouldn't happen to know of one for sale would you?

 

No,
Unfortunately I don't. It is an odd one. I believe it is a Covico brand. The rings in the wheel are really what makes it unique. I bet you can find one on the interwebs somewhere!

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