So if you read my intro post, and your not in line to stone me for ripping the heart out of a pony to put in a bird, maybe you could help me.
I have a 63' Falcon with a 302 H.O. Recently bought and busy straightening out it's many issues. Mostly been busy with the wiring under dash but moving to the engine soon and looking for a direction to go.
- The issue: It runs but runs terribly. Motor seems solid no knocks just surge issues and when its warmed up will idle but all up and down. It fires right up but will rev up and down a few times and die without feathering the throttle until its warm.
- Previous owner put many new parts in it trying to tackle this issue (maybe why I got a deal on it). Has new iac, tps, fuel reg, temp unit and the other thing across from it on the manifold. Has new map or maf? Plastic thing with one vacuum line on it. Maybe more I haven't found yet.
I may not know all the parts names (yet), but I do things one way, the right way (as much as possible).
- The throttle cable is butchered a terrible mess with cable clamps / mechanical linkage hybrid mess as is the back of the engine around salt n pepper shakers. WILL be pulling the upper manifold to address these issues and make right.
- What I have done so far. Checked plug wire routing. Cap and rotor are newer. Verified its on compression stroke pointing at #1. Set timing to 11. Set tps to 95v. Blew smoke in vacuum lines into manifold. Smoke only came out air filter. Put vacuum gauge to it and verified it runs bad. I did tune it to the normal range turning the distributor. This made the most difference. Actually got it to run decent and started better. But! to do it I had to turn the distributor to say, looking at it with number 1 plug being 12 o clock, turned it to 2 o clock. I put timing back to 11 because turning the dist so much seemed bad.
Bio - The car has a T5. The gears seem to be around 3.50 give or take. Does not have a pressurized gas tank. Falcon original. Has electric fuel pump. No air. No smog. No power steering. As far as I know it is stock motor, no cam. Hedman short tube headers. Was said to run good at some point prior to last owner. That owner drove it as a daily 2yrs.
- My questions.
I have a 63' Falcon with a 302 H.O. Recently bought and busy straightening out it's many issues. Mostly been busy with the wiring under dash but moving to the engine soon and looking for a direction to go.
FYI, I'm not a died in the wool Ford guy. Or any other for that matter. I believe its not the make of the car, its WHO takes car of the car. Does seem I always end up back in Fords though. My first road car was a 302 Maverick. That didn't end well.....As far as the Falcon goes I was like ...Ok its not too bad a car. Needs alot of work. Their ok cars, but when I opened the hood and saw that H.O sittin between the towers I fell in love! All of a sudden the whole car was just beautiful! It all made sense so I dumped out my wallet for the guy!
- The issue: It runs but runs terribly. Motor seems solid no knocks just surge issues and when its warmed up will idle but all up and down. It fires right up but will rev up and down a few times and die without feathering the throttle until its warm.
- Previous owner put many new parts in it trying to tackle this issue (maybe why I got a deal on it). Has new iac, tps, fuel reg, temp unit and the other thing across from it on the manifold. Has new map or maf? Plastic thing with one vacuum line on it. Maybe more I haven't found yet.
I may not know all the parts names (yet), but I do things one way, the right way (as much as possible).
- The throttle cable is butchered a terrible mess with cable clamps / mechanical linkage hybrid mess as is the back of the engine around salt n pepper shakers. WILL be pulling the upper manifold to address these issues and make right.
- What I have done so far. Checked plug wire routing. Cap and rotor are newer. Verified its on compression stroke pointing at #1. Set timing to 11. Set tps to 95v. Blew smoke in vacuum lines into manifold. Smoke only came out air filter. Put vacuum gauge to it and verified it runs bad. I did tune it to the normal range turning the distributor. This made the most difference. Actually got it to run decent and started better. But! to do it I had to turn the distributor to say, looking at it with number 1 plug being 12 o clock, turned it to 2 o clock. I put timing back to 11 because turning the dist so much seemed bad.
Bio - The car has a T5. The gears seem to be around 3.50 give or take. Does not have a pressurized gas tank. Falcon original. Has electric fuel pump. No air. No smog. No power steering. As far as I know it is stock motor, no cam. Hedman short tube headers. Was said to run good at some point prior to last owner. That owner drove it as a daily 2yrs.
- My questions.
-First off, will this thing even run right ever with the stock computer?
-Should I just swap it out for a Holley or Fitech system. (they aren't cheap and I am not rich!).
-Whats next? Just start pulling the manifolds fixing what I see? I haven't done that yet based on the idea that it was supposed to run good as it is. Trying to get it back to that point without adding other potential issues first.
-Is swapping all the efi to a carb a doable thing? It is the cheapest, besides keeping it stock.
- Could it be a tooth off? All seems right...
I'm gonna stop this here. Please ask questions I'm not smart enough to ask and suggestions are appreciated. I thought about a build post but not sure if is ok beings it a Falcon.
O..and I ramble on sometimes...blah blah blah.