Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

hoopty5.0 said:

You don't have an IAC?

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Of course not......( Don't be ridiculous)

I have a stupid Fast Idle Valve. ( Or Fidle valve)

It's just a GM dual tank solenoid that is triggered by one of my outputs to open at cold start-up t let more air into the engine until it gets to 140. After that, It's only the set screw on the throttle body that adjusts how much air this engine breathes.

MY 85 GT said:

Is this car have a MAF or a MAP sensor?

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MAP

Noobz347 said:

Wish I had a dollar for every time I've seen this fix the issue on a Fox. BBK were/are notorious for whistling. The only other brand I've tried was a PP... It was just a piece of junk. Makes a shiny ash tray.

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My TB is a Summit branded piece. Automatically makes it Chinese more than likely. That means that automatically, the IAC air passages are probably full of casting flash, and sharp edges.
It's raining here today. These last two days are the first time it's rained in over two months, so while it sucks that it's raining on my day off,..it's by far the lesser of two evils. I have a garage, and the TB project (among other piddly ones), are perfect indoor time waster's.
Right now the car is up in the air again.....I needed to see about the transmission TS leak. Good thing though, because either I didn't thread the transmission bolts in all the way, or didn't tighten them, because there they were, both literally hangin by a thread. Had I not had a leak,...I'dve never put the car back up in the air until whatever happens when you don't have a trans mount happens. That could've been sooo bad.

The US Army calls the process PMCS. Preventative Maintenance Checks and Services. Clearly, I should adhere to that with regard to my bolt tightening regimen. Considering that every single bolt was off this car,...that might be a good idea for today as well.

I was telling a guy yesterday about all of the junk that I went through (of my own making) to do this engine. In hindsight, I'm amazed that it even runs. Simple stuff that everybody else takes for granted (like a replacement valve cover gasket) requires a google search. When you have a head that WAS on an engine 36 years ago,..and that head WAS only used in two countries, and neither of them are this one,....finding that gasket becomes.........a challenge.

But,...just like every other weird assed thing I've managed to do with this thing,...I persevered.

I found it. In Texas,.....( see you TX guys don't know how Australian you actually are)

For whatever reason, these guys chose to open a distributor of their stuff in TX: http://www.aussiespeedshop.com/ it suits me just fine.

Because......

They have my valve cover gasket.

When I die,....I'm coming back as a Beaver. I'm just busy that way.

So,....I'm gonna buy that gasket, remove my valvecover, and re-lash the rockers. Now that the engine has run enough, the tips of the rockers will have left their "mark" on the tips of my valve stems. I hope that all 12 of them are tracking properly,...when the pedestals were milled off by the first machine shop they completely phcked that up. Screwing the studs in had them visibly out of line. I had to have them redrill the holes bigger (from 3/8" to 7/16") in an attempt to straighten out their mess.

I don't have to tell you that it won't necessarily take a lot of variance to have a rocker improperly open and close that valve,..but I guess only time will tell. I'm ordering the gasket today.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed

*** For the diagnosticians**

Maybe I have a guardian angel.

For the sake of an oil leak, I put the car up in the air and find loose bolts. Anybody who has actually read all of the babble I write in these updates knows that for as long as this engine has been running, I've been chasing my tail around trying to find that leak.

That stupid oil leak had me tearing the side of the engine off two weeks ago. Even after which I still managed to have the leak.

You'd think that I'd have seen this,..but for whatever reason (because I'm stupid) I missed it.

Today since it was raining out I removed the TB and radiused the air passages. I don't know for sure, but now that that is done,..I'm pretty sure that I had the fast idle valve drawing air from the wrong side of the throttle blade. I'll know later this afternoon when I start it.

If that was the case, then again........I'm stupid.

I decided to re-calibrate the WB O2 sensor. That required I remove the sensor and go through a process to allow the sensor to breathe fresh air. That sensor is on the side of the engine where the oil was pooling on the turbo exhaust.

After doing the re-cal,..I looked closer at the potential leak,..and thought (to myself) " Is the gasket not even UNDER the valve cover?"

I removed the valve cover, and lifted the thing straight up.

Ya spose this might be why my engine leaks oil?




Like I said.....stupid.

Too bad some people are ignoring me,.....they'd be loling now.

Davedacarpainter said:

Alright Mike, you're not responding to my jabs. I must have made you mad (ironically).

Sorry my friend, I hoped you knew i was a smartas*. I've been wanting to use that R-tard clip for so long too.

I really think it's great that you found the leak and it's an easy fix that won't have you pulling your hair out.

You know i worship you and the monster.

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Nope.......Not even mad in the slightest. Actually laughed at the moron one liner comment. (see Dave, inasmuch as you think you know me,...I think that same about you....I knew you were joking....I didn't have to say anything)


Today I learned that I wasn't wrong about the fast idle port placement..I was right all along. Putting the thing backwards made for an interesting experiment though.....

#1. Putting the extra air inlet before the throttle blade made absolutely NO difference,.....matter of fact it's supposed to go behind the blade to let extra air in the engine, For whatever reason this morning I decided that I was wrong originally, and reversed what I had done correctly the first time.

The only thing putting that thing backwards did was intensify the whistle. When I realized that I had put it back together the wrong way, and after fixing it the original whistle returned. I'm firmly convinced that the "whistle" is a result of air rushing over a hole, creating an effect much like a flute. What ever the "better" throttle bodies do to alleviate this I don't know,..I just know it's not from an external vacuum leak.

I sprayed every possible place the air could get in with starting fluid. Typically, if there was an air leak there, starting fluid shoulda gotten pulled in and caused an increase in idle speed. That didn't happen.

I messed with the tune....apparently,..my engine is just gonna want to idle in the 13.0-13.5 AFR range. It seems happy there.

The OG oil leak is now gone. A new one has appeared at the pump itself. Just my luck.

The TS leak appears to be gone.

I got a shorty antenna for my front fender. It's about 8" long, and screws into the base where the original 30" piece is supposed to go. I checked the signal on a notoriously weak signal'd station, and it came in perfectly,..so that's fixed.

The valves barely needed adjustment. I ran through them and reinstalled the valve cover,..this time w/ the gasket between the head and the cover.

I did a "Mike front end alignment", and pulled a string from front to back. I adjusted the front tires to give them 1/8" toe in. All that's left is to tighten the nuts, and it'll be good enough for the upcoming test drives.

I determined that I have my fuel gauge wired backwards. There is probably 3 whole gallons in my tank, but the gauge reads 96%. (I'm sure that means 96% full,..but since it's backwards,...it's actually 96% empty). I'll flip the wires,..hopefully it'll read 4%.

It's getting there.