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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / No Power After Rebuild

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Posted By Discussion Topic: No Power After Rebuild -- page: 1 2 3     TomO 01-01-2016 @ 8:20 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 It is more likely that your points are not set correctly. The opening of the break set of points determines the spark timing. Your timing could be off due to the way the points were set or due to wear. Jake Fleming's contact information can be found here http://www.lzoc.org/Sources/sources.htm He is in Dallas and is the closest reference that I can give for quality distributor work. Tom DHunt 01-01-2016 @ 5:55 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 14 Joined: Nov 2009 Thanks for all your advice. I have learned a lot in the process. A quick update.. I don't have an orginal exhaust heat riser valve that could be restricting the exhaust. Also confirmed I'm not dragging my brakes. I agree its sometimes the simple things that are the source of the problems. The 1932 Cast Iron Heads have been on the car since I purchased it and I kept them on during the rebuilt. I replaced my new Motorcraft plugs with my old Champions that I had in the car before the rebuild. Gapped them for 0.025 inch. Noted the Champion plugs have the electrodes fully exposed compared to the Motorcraft plugs which have the electrode recessed into the plug body so I felt good about the change. After I did that the engine performance improved slightly. Engine Vacuum increased to ~ 16 inches. The mild back fire improved but was still there and still low on power. Without anymore "easy" ideas I advanced my Timing as much as it would go in my stock Distributor. I now have 18 inches of Vacuum and the Car has full power. Its also running cooler. So what does this mean? Is it possible to be a tooth out still on my cam? (Recall I have good compression on all my cylinders (100 psig). Thanks the comments. David Hunt Kingwood TX shogun1940 01-01-2016 @ 10:18 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 464 Joined: Feb 2010 I think your compression is to low,,the throttle plate must be wide open,,all spark plugs out. When all cylinders are low it indicates wrong cam/crank timing. Vacuum should be 18" at idle and go up to 19-20 at 1500 rpm, snap open the throttle and it should drop to near zero and then go 5" over what you had at 1500 rpm. If the exhaust is not the problem which it could be. Put the timing mark on tdc and put compressed air into # 1 cylinder if air comes out of the carb or exhaust you are probably one tooth off on the cam/crank gears 40 Coupe 12-29-2015 @ 6:03 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1678 Joined: Oct 2009 14" of vacuum at idle is too low, with one Carb and a stock cam your looking for approx. 18" with a fresh rebuild maybe higher. The vacuum should drop suddenly as you accelerate RPM. Look on the web for a description of engine vacuum readings and problems associated, compare your vacuum reading to those. Have you adjusted the carburetor idle mixture screws? Ford tolerance gap rotor to inner distributor terminal for 35 Ford is .0035 min to .0105" This message was edited by 40 Coupe on 12-29-15 @ 6:16 AM TomO 12-28-2015 @ 9:33 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 David, To check the gap between the rotor and cap, just remove the coil and turn over the engine until the rotor point is aligned with the contact on the distributor cap. The gap should be around .010". It is probably a good thing that you did not replace the inner caps as the new ones are of such poor quality that they should only be used on engine that don't need to be run. If you have a dwell meter, while you have the coil off, add a short wire to screw that holds the condenser to the coil. Make it long enough that you can connect your dwell meter lead to it. When you have the coil mounted on the distributor, connect your dwell meter to the wire and ground. Start the engine and check for 34-36 degrees of dwell. You also need to check the rotor for rotational and lateral play. Just because it is new doesn't mean that there isn't a problem with it. You could also try a different brand of spark plug and a larger plug gap (may be .028 - .030). Tom len47merc 12-28-2015 @ 5:33 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1165 Joined: Oct 2013 David - still trying to think of the most simple solutions to your problem. Just to be sure check the heat riser valve (if your vehicle's exhaust still has one) on the driver's side exhaust manifold to see both if it has free travel (meaning it is not stuck closed) and the butterfly is still attached to the shaft and rotating with the shaft when it turns. Steve pauls39coupe 12-27-2015 @ 10:14 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 205 Joined: Jul 2014 I still believe you may have an exhaust restriction, have you removed the pipes or muffler to check this out? Check all the plug wires from cap to plug, to make sure they are in the correct order. Try a different distributor to be sure the timing is not retarded. Even the best rebuilders make mistakes now and then. Are the 32 heads a new addition? The chamber size may be large, causing a loss in compression. Check the brakes. You may have one or more locked up from sitting. Dragging brakes may seem like lost engine power. Let us know how this turns out. DHunt 12-27-2015 @ 5:52 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 14 Joined: Nov 2009 Thanks all for the continued interest in my issue. When accelerating the vacuum quickly falls to zero then builds back to a steady 15 inches. So that should rule out a restricted exhaust. My car only sat for 2 months this summer while the engine was being rebuilt. I would say that Scenario 11 describes my situation. It suggest retarded timing or bad points or Spark plug gap as the cause. I have new Motorcraft spark plugs TT 10 gapped at 0.025" inches. I have 1932 Cast Iron heads so these are the big plugs like a Model A. I had my distributor reconditioned recently (last month) by a professional shop in Indiana. I know he installed a new rotor as part of the reconditioning. How to I check the tolerance between the rotor and cap? I had a new set of caps from Mac's but I couldn't get them to sit true on my distributor so I put my old distributor caps back on. Those caps are the only thing I haven't replaced in my ignition system. I have spark to all my spark plugs. Engine also slows if a remove the wire from each of the spark plugs. Early in the troubleshooting we removed the intake manifold and checked it for debris and found none. Thanks for your continued help. David Hunt len47merc 12-26-2015 @ 12:46 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1165 Joined: Oct 2013 Happened to my '47 just as as you described trford8. Mouse hotel well established in the muffler after 35 or so years of being idled in a dry fully enclosed pole barn. Had to cut open one end of the original miffler to remove the Hilton. Almost had the exhaust fully blocked. Steve trjford8 12-26-2015 @ 10:45 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 4218 Joined: Oct 2009 I know this may sound a little strange, but if your car sat for awhile when doing the repairs perhaps a mouse or a rat entered the tailpipe and built a nest in there. Maybe even got trapped in there somehow and plugged the exhaust. It has been known to happen, especially with "barn" cars.

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