History 1956 Ford Thunderbird find, eventually buy, and get most of way home!!

Bert came over to help and now the carburetor with the adaptor is on and the vacuum lines have been tweaked a bit to connect to the new carburetor.

We spruced up the manifold, etc. a bit more, too. Next will be the distributor!
Opportunities!

 

You can purchase a carb fitting so you can bend a steel fuel line from your filter to the carb bringing it from the rear or across the front. I still use coat hangers for templates.

 

here's the way I did it. And in case you're wondering, that's a Blue Thunder intake I painted like stock. I searched for a banjo fitting for the carb but never found what I needed so this was the best I could come up with. Also I use a carb spacer, this manifold has the bigger flange and doesn't need a carb adapter.

 

Looks great. Steel lines make an engine compartment look stock even it they are not. Rubber hoses with a plastic filter just don’t look right or good to me.

 

^^Thanks for sharing. I hope to upgrade to hard lines... they do look good.
The following are some reference pictures I took in preparation for pulling the stock distributor.

The above is from the passenger side. Rotor pointing pretty close to straight to firewall.


The above is from driver's side; showing tach drive outlet housing below clip for cap.

Above is same as previous but from passenger side.
These should be adequate reference pictures. Now need to pull the old distributor and begin checking for length, etc.
Opportunites!

 

I did a poor job of lining them up but they measured the same length and I checked that the location of the bottom gear was the same.


No pictures (yet!) but the new distributor is in! I even think I got the rotor in the right spot!
Seems I remember that the new plugs we just installed now need to be regapped to .040 or .045... details!
Gotta pick a source of 12 volts for the electric choke... any suggestions?
Thanks,
Getting There Al

 

Use a test wire first, I think I used the positive side of the coil, but the wire runs to the resistor first on mine. Works when key is in on position.

I like that they are finally building that distributor with the Mechanical tach housing. Much better than without. Sender tachs are too high tech for me, haha. Maybe better, but I like keeping it traditional with a cable.

 

Any 12 V ignition circuit would be okay. I have my electric choke connected to the output terminal on the generator. It doesn't get power until the generator begins to charge (cutout relay closes in regulator). It is fairly close to the choke housing on a T-Bird. This won't work if you are using an alternator.

 

I left the electric choke wire way too long and hooked it to positive side of coil.
I also changed new hard gas line over to a hose before hooking to carb. The vacuum lines to the fuel pump still need some new hoses and tweaking but the overall initial hookup is nearly complete.

'
The whole setup will need some tweaking I'm sure. I notice in the pictures I need to double check that coil wire and probably check to ensure that all plug wires are fully inserted into the cap.
We also need to gap the plugs to .045.
Details... more opportunities!
Getting Close Al

 

Hi Al, I've been following along on your project and it looks great. I just wanted to mention that when I hooked up 12v power to my electric choke I used the post on the alternator. But I used an oil pressure switch that has 3 terminals and ran the 12v from the alternator to one side of the switch. I ran a wire from the other side of the switch to the electric choke (obviously the middle terminal is for the oil pressure gauge). The reason for this is so that if the engine quits running there is no power to the choke. I have heard that if for whatever reason the engine stops running and the ignition switch is still on then there is power to the choke which could potentially overheat and cause a fire. I have no idea if this has ever happened but I figured if there is any possibility of this I'd play it safe.
Again I have been enjoying your work and progress here.

 

I just read on the Edelbrock electric choke kit instructions to never use the coil.
It should be connected to a fused circuit that activates when the ignition is turned on.

 

IF it was mine I would be more inclined to route the fuel line this way to avoid the choke parts and away from the coil. And it helps hide and cleanup the installation of that shiny new carb.

In the lower photo I would re-route the section of small hose to run UNDER that steel line it passes on top of now.

Not much work involved now that you are already there making changes.

 

^^^Thanks for the help and suggestions. I'll move the electric choke source from the coil to elsewhere. I had planned to reroute that hose as suggested. As for gas line, it should stay cooler in front of the carburetor was my thinking but would be tidier disappearing around back.
I don't understand why the fuel pump seems to have two vacuum lines coming off the top.
One I presume is to add vacuum to the fuel pump for whatever reason as it runs from back of carburetor to the fuel pump. The other runs from the fuel pump to the hose that needs to be rerouted... I don't know where it goes after it enters the firewall.
Opportunities!
Thanks greatly for the continued interest and help and suggestions.
Back to the garage Al

 

Millions of VW bugs had the choke wired to the coil hot wire from the factory.

Were the tubes on the fuel pump extra vacuum for the wipers?

 

The upper vacuum tubes are an assist for the wipers as @BamaMav stated. Thru the firewall to the wiper motor.

 

Love looking at Y-Blocks, thanks & hope it runs GR8 !

 

^^I guessed line through firewall went to wipers but don't understand why just didn't run directly from back of carb through the firewall? Versus routing to fuel pump and then through firewall? Obviously I'm no engineer!
I'm surprised fuel pump required vacuum but... I'm no engineer!
Thanks for the help.

 

The vacuum booster on the fuel pump is to keep the wipers from stopping when you step on the gas and manifold vacuum dropped. It kind of worked.

 

Hey, um, guys... if you could just STOP posting pics of this motor... I'm all horny for a T-bird engine now and I've already gotten FAR TOO MANY ideas in my head.

Like, buying a Y-block, pulling out the engine that's in my car and installing it, then dressing it up all nice, and spending money I don't have, and then needing a transmission, and a new driveshaft, then probably a new rear end, and then there's the exhaust, and the firewall, and putting my completion schedule (like I have one) back to square one.

Just kidding. Sweet car, awesome engine. Keep up the great work. I'll keep dreaming.

 

It runs!! At least with a couple shots of ether!
I've got to properly prime it with some gas and be sure I've got the vacuum lines correct on fuel pump and elsewhere. I wanted to save some of that for Bert but he's working very long days helping folks keep water in their wells and working.


More later.
Thanks for the continued interest and help!

 

The vacuum line going into the dash for the wiper motor is teed off to a cable that opens up the heater flapper AND an actuator that opens the heater valve on the front of intake letting hot water go to the heater radiator. If it is working correctly the hose leaving it will be cool to the touch until you slide one of your heater controls to “heat”, that should open the valve on the engine allowing the water to circulate.
Ez to test. With the engine running disconnect the vacuum line pthe valve there should be no suction. Move the lever to heat and you should feel vacuum at the end of the hose.

 

Nice car . Love early birds Tom

 

The good news is it started right up! It seemed like the electric choke was working but the idle seemed mighty fast. As I got out of the car to see about lowering the idle, I noticed it was leaking gas seemingly out of the accelerator pump area but I didn't stand there analyzing while gas was running out and onto the engine!
I cut it off and lengthened the linkage some to lower the idle but the issue of why the extra gas is a puzzle.
Opportunities!

 

Maybe you need a pressure gauge prior to the carb. I have a electric fuel pump so far works good Tom

 

The good news is I installed a pressure gauge and Bert and I regapped the plugs to .045.
All seemed good... but the dang brand new Edelbrock carburetor was literally dumping gas into the engine!
I don't know why and don't care. We took it off and new one is being shipped with expected arrival on Wednesday.
This isn't a new picture but it is what we have now.

Bummer!
The good news, if you can call it that, is that we hopefully have all the details sorted out and should be able to install the new carburetor pretty quickly... maybe then we can go for some ice cream!!
I'm also doing some preliminary research on getting the new setup to clear the hood safely. Even with an air cleaner maybe!
Opportunities!

 

Sounds like a stuck needle. Ford stock Y-block pumps put out about 4 psi. and the Edelbrock can take more than that. I would have tapped on the of carb. Can’t tell you how have done that to me. Good luck.

 

There was a recent carb comparison on TV that ranked the Edelbrock carburetor last in a three way comparison. First and cheapest was a Summit replica of a Holley. Second was a Street Demon. They were ranked by; price, ease of tuning, and power made. The Summit actually required no tuning out of the box and the others did.

 

Have read in the past to check the float level settings on a new Edel before installing.
I was installing a new 2X4 setup and I checked, they were off and I reset. Other than idle mixture and speed, have not touched them again in several years of street and strip use.

 

Not way-lay this site but the YBlocksforver site is filled with the successes of the Summit replacement carb for the old Autolite 4100 that Holley even made before Summit took it over on many YBlocks.. There are 500’s, 600’s, and 700 cfm. I purchased a new 500 for my Blue Thunder intake but my dual quads are working great now..

 

Nothing but good words for the two Summit carbs I've bought. Both ran find out of the box.