Old Guy Stuff

[garycrist]

I have been a Ford guy since my 1st. car a burgundy  63, I've been hooked. When I worked at a L/M

dealer in the mid 70's when all of the glob-on emission were added. Gas mileage became terrible, especially

in 385 series engines or 429s and 460s. Part of the "Ford approved service procedure" aka. warranty. (I get paid)

was to put on a 1/10 gallon  glass jug that attached to the driver's rolled down window and the window channel.

I twisted a valve and it filled up the container to a measured mark. It went to the carb and when that jug went empty

the car died. What a terrible job, driving in an air-conditioned Lincoln during the Summer!

 

From that experience I have always beat everyone in their own vehicle on gas mileage. 

Oh yes, back to the big blocks. As we were out in the country, we would take them out and pour

1/2 to 1 gallon of ATF through the carb to de-carbon them. What a cloud it would make, even better that

a C-4 modulator rupturing! After driving them around for a bit, they would clear up and not ping so bad

with the crummy fuel we had back the,

[Tim W. AZ]

When I started driving in 71, they used to sell re-refined oil at the Hudson station by my house. My first car after my mom's 68 Bonneville convertible, (the girls loved that car) was a 67 Riviera with a 430cu in and it hauled ass. It did great burnouts and I won a few races in that car. I had a Dynamic 88 and a Datsun 210 wagon that rusted beyond safe and when I drove it to the junk yard, I had to used a metal post to stop. The body slid forward a few inches it was rusted so bad. I bought my brother in laws 78, three on the tree, Maverick and have owned Fords pretty much ever since, other than one Buick. To blow out carbon, we would hit the freeway northbound and run at 100 mph or so. Ah..., the reckless old days.

Edited March 24 by Tim W. AZ

[Cerberus]

8 hours ago, garycrist said:

..we would take them out and pour

1/2 to 1 gallon of ATF through the carb to de-carbon them. What a cloud it would make, even better that

a C-4 modulator rupturing! After driving them around for a bit, they would clear up and not ping so bad

with the crummy fuel we had back the,

 

8 hours ago, Tim W. AZ said:

.. To blow out carbon, we would hit the freeway northbound and run at 100 mph or so. Ah..., the reckless old days.

ahh.. the time honored ways to clean out an engine.. 

My father used Marvel Mystery oil on everything.. before Cats.. even seized up motors

and the classic, "Italian Tune up".. pull the trans down to 2nd and beat the snot out of it lol

Anybody else ever dump (carefully administer) a bottle of water down the intake of a hot engine while hand modulating the throttle?

it definitely worked for cleaning up chambers and reducing ping

This was my go-to trick when the Italian tune up didn't do enough. lol

 

[garycrist]

The funnies things during that time, was run-on. Shut the key off, go inside and eat

come back out and the car was still running. I guess it was one of those FREE options.

At least it cut down on starter replacement.

 

When I moved to Cali one could not De-carbon them like we used to. I once had a big block

Ford that ran-on no matter what I did. I even set the idle down to about 400ish RPM. It would still

run-on, with the best solution to shut it down in Drive, most of the time!

[Tim W. AZ]

48 minutes ago, garycrist said:

The funnies things during that time, was run-on. Shut the key off, go inside and eat come back out and the car was still running.

I remember them "chugging" until they finally choked themselves out. Compared to then, there are a lot of repairs and service that I won't/can't do now because of complexity, but cars don't carbon up, run on, crack blocks and throw rods like they used to.

[garycrist]

The funniest part of the muscle cars of the 60's and 70's is they didn't stop, could not corner worth

a diddly, brakes were for the faint of heart and only an AM radio.

Now one may play tunes in a climate controlled environment with heated/cooled seats

and outrun most of those fast cars of the day, all in our STs.

[Tim W. AZ]

And now spent $50,000 plus or minus depending on the car, to buy a car that was originally under $4000.

[garycrist]

Adding to the topic, I see a member who has no heat below 2K RPM. Back in the early 80's I took

to learning all I could about the 5.7L GM diesels. I even learned how to rebuild Rosa pumps or

the high pressure pump and 8 spider legs.

 

The shop behind me specialized in replacing those diesel engines with gasoline motors. He had a

pile of engines and he gave me all I wanted! But, back to the heating issue. I would have clients call

and tell me their heaters quit working but, they ignored it because the A/C was needed but, now

that it's getting cold, bla bla bla.

I told them they would need head gaskets and it would run $XXX. The next obvious question would 

be as you know, is "Well how in the hell would YOU KNOW as you haven't even looked at the car yet"!!!

Usually they would call back stating they took it somewhere else and wanted so much more bla bla bla.🤣

 

The neat thing about the 5.7 diesel was the 1980 X block. It had the big  main bearing journals, but most importantly,

it could be bored .250 inch. Warren Johnson Pro Stock, used those blocks in his big cubic inch Thumpers.

 

AHHH the fun! By mixing and matching different parts, the late model heads, cam etc. I built a monster diesel

motor for my Dad. We put that into a Burgundy Olds 98 with crushed velvet seats. What a living room. You

could do burn-out with the thing! On a run from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City cruising about 85 he got 27 MPG!