Projects New Owner of the 1954 Ford “Mint Julep”

You can “clock” by just moving each spark plug wire one position back or forward one spot for which ever direction is correct and adjust it accordingly. May be easier.
I ran my 56 with a single canister loadmatic for a few months with a stock 4100 Holley before I changed to a 57-up and Carter WCFB from a 53 Cadillac. It ran fine in fact very well and the change came because I wanted a different carb.
Today a lot of mechanical advance Fords distributors are converted later engine models and not original yblocks and there have been problems with them. I’m not sure if there would be a difference using the earlier gear.
I like a combo distributor but Ford made the loadmatic work for many, many years.

 

I’m not sure on the 2bbl, I did the one for the teapot on my 56, worked great. If you’re going to upgrade carbs anyway, you could go that way, it was super easy.

https://www.eatonbalancing.com/2013...four-barrel-carb-for-late-model-distributors/

 

Nice score love that car, I had a 53 vicky pink and white. If you are going to mess with distributor replace it with a Mallory unilite . I put it in my 292 and never looked back.

 

Let me just say, Mr. Izardi, that I love the custom, I do and it’s good to know that it’s in a good home. But I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that killer garage find coupe of yours.

 

Is this hose up front going to a small canister the road draft / blow by tube into some sort of a catch can? Is it possible that small canister has to be drained time to time?

 

Just a guestion here....but what is wrong with the way it sits now...?

 

Top photo is now and bottom photo is the original stance. Had 3” blocks and air shocks. Now it has 2” and has a slight forward rake.

 

If you look carefully I believe you will see a PCV valve somehow attached to the original crankcase breather canister. Many Ford guys have discussed this on the Yblocksforever.com page and it really not advised because of oil splash. Most install a PCV vale from the rear of the valley cover of a 62-64 car/truck or a 55-57 Thunderbird one.

Any oil caught in it should drain back into the engine on the style I had on my 56 The draft tube seems to blanked off at the bottom of the canister. There still may be a wire mesh style filter in it. There was one when the system was installed in 54. I am not that familiar with the 54 and it may well be different than the 55-57 which I am.

To check your system, with the engine warm at idle remove the oil fill breather cap and see it the tube has suction on it. It should be able to hold a piece of paper. In A proper setup the fill cap will have a 1/2” hose line and a hose to the air cleaner on the inside of the paper element. (Many are left open like yours)

The yblocksforever.com website has the knowledge and help of many who obviously have and like their Y’s. You can search in the site and ask anything. Ted Eaton monitors it and is one of the premier yblock engine builders of our time along with a few others. Good luck with a very nice car…

 

Is the large black hose that comes off the plate under carb for PVC ? I don't see a PVC valve without a valve Its a vacuun leak causing the engine to run lean.

 

good question I’m not sure to be honest

 

Expanding your photo there IS a PCV attached to the canister the way I see it. You can see the hose and clamp on the slip on you can’t see. Then the body of the Valve itself and then the 6 sided place for the wrench. I’m betting a 3/8” threaded portion is under the 6 sided part. All early PCV valves were serviceable and came apart.

I’d bet 99% we’re screwed into the base of the carburetor and not this direction and it’s why I stated to do the test above. I still use this style today ( V100) on ALL my PCV conversions as most are at the rear of the carbs.

The Z28 302 SBC engines used a PVC valve that screwed into a boss on the oil fill cap which was sealed at the top. This would be the proper valve to use in this application.

The correct vacuum reading on a closed system was engineered to be fro 1 to 3 inches of vacuum.

 

Thanks so much for the info. Checked if we have vacuum on the oil fill tube with paper and we do. And yes it does look like there’s some type of PCV going into that canister at the end of the rubber hose. I don’t think we have any vacuum leak going on but this canister is making a mess. Not sure what’s going on until I can Jack the front up and get in there.

 

You need a rubber hose to connect the metal vaccum line (to the left of that rubber hose) to your distributor for vaccum advance.

 

my guess vacuun wipers

 

As was mentioned, the 56 (or 55, any y block loadomatic) is part of a system with a specific carburetor. If you can’t identify the carb as being the correct one, that distributor will never work right. The 239 used a different cam (bearings and the gear) than all later y blocks. It also used a tang oil pump drive shaft, the later models used a hex drive. With the later oil pump and the 56 distributor, that’s probably taken care of. The hex drive uses a c clip to retain the shaft at the oil pump, so it can’t pull out when you remove the distributor. Hopefully that was done.

There’s been a number of issues with recently rebuilt Cardone 57 up distributors, they’re the wrong length to properly engage the cam gear. Check that against the 56 unit before you install it.

I can’t say about the 239, but most of us are running more than the spec advance on the initial timing. More on the order of 8-10 initial. With less advance and no “mechanical” advance from the loadomatic, your performance is about what I’d expect. So the later model distributor is probably the easiest and cheapest fix. As pointed out, there’s a lot of info on Eaton’s site. Include how to modify an early carb to use a later (57 up) distributor. I do not know if it covers the 2 barrel or just the 4 barrel. Worth a look.

Jimmy 6 is correct about the PCV stuff, that’s another common problem for oil and/or vacuum problems when tuning.

Beautiful car and great history.

 

The bottom canister catch can was added to a cut off draft tube pipe. Take the acorn nut off and remove the top screen cover with the hose/ PCV valve and hose to carb. Inside you find 2 bolts I believe they will be 5/16” coarse, remove everything else and clean it all up.

With it all apart unscrew the PCV valve and clean it. You might need carb cleaner for it.

Put it all back together since it works. Like I said above this is not the recommended way for a PCV system fora y block but it will work. It all should be done with a later valley cover.

I think the stock 2 barrel has an economizer valve that’s on the outside near the base on the back. If it doesn’t it may not be the correct2 barrel. TheCarbking here knows for sure.

 

Congratulations,You guys are going to be Cruzin in Style this summer! Enjoy

 

Thanks!! Going to jack it up and start getting into it in a week or so to address everything the car needs.

 

Congrats on the buy! One of the best 54s out there! Is it running stock front coils or aerostar along with the granada spindles & brakes?

Cant wait to see more pics of it in the future

 

I know it has Granada spindles and brakes but not sure about the springs. @axle any info?

 

Ford AeroStars are the standard today for the front but some can’t because both Granada spindles and AeroStars make them too low.

 

Any updates?

 

Still waiting on lots of parts. Will be making a lot of progress this weekend if everything shows up before then.

 

Here’s the current state of the car alongside my dads 37 Chevy which just came back from paint and is ready for reassembly. This weekend I’ll be able to knock out most of the issues with the 54.

Heres the list:
New tires and spin balance wheels
Install 3” blocks
Check for driveshaft clearance
Replace fuel sending unit
Replace worn upper steering column bushing
Replace front and rear shocks
Replace fuel line hose for hard line at pump
Repair bent shift linkage
Replace antenna
Install 57 distributor
Install Rochester 2g
Check spark plugs & wires
Clean and paint suspension / frame

 

Stunning in that color combo.

 

That's a big list for one weekend, but I can see you are getting close to some cruising.

 

yeah I’m not going to get the distributor and carb sorted out this weekend but everything else between Friday through Sunday I can tackle.

 

In a previous post I mentioned that Mr. Izardi has a killer garage find coupe. Well, here ya go.

 

Made good progress tonight. New front shocks installed, greased the entire front end, new V belt on, painted the front suspension, fixed the steering column wobble with a new bushing, installed the new fuel tank sending unit now the fuel gauge works. Fixed the bent shift linkage with new straight rods now the shifter goes through all the gears. Tomorrow we’ll put the 3” blocks on, redo the fuel hose coming out of the fuel pump, get the back wheels on and start to focus on the carb and distributor.

 

Great progress.