Fox The build - 4eyed Fox - Stoppie Montoya

00
Hello everyone, some of you have already seen some pics of Stoppie Montoya, my 80 Ghia Mustang that has a 302/347 under the hood. I have been driving the car since I bought it in March, intermittently (once a week), and stopped driving it for most of June and July, and now I am back driving it.

I have decided that I need to start working on the car, as there are some issues with it now, and, the re-build is inevitable. I have no intention of restoring the car, but I do want to cruise in a comfortable, growling, means business when poked Fox, and this thread is for that purpose.

Below are known issues to me at this stage, in no particular order:
1. Overheating, this is a trifecta of a fan problem, a thermostat on the way out due to an older radiator (the coolant is brownish). It will be running a little too warm, and it will boil over when standing still for a few minutes. This limits my driving options to highways in non-rush hour times.

2. Drivetrain, the more I drive this thing, the more I understand what the previous owner wanted to do; which is 1/8 mile racing. It jumps off the line like a bullet, then the speed starts dying. When I am on the highway, I slot it into 3rd, it will pull yes, but not 347 pull. He did tell me that the gearing was modified for 1st and 2nd (non-stock trans), and it supposedly has 3.73 gearing.

3. Fuel delivery
3.1 The car smells of gas, I am sure there is a leak somewhere, and it idles rough at anything under 1500 RPM. It has a Demon carb on it, I have been trying to identify the type of Demon, and the CFM size, the closest I came to is that it is a Mighty Demon, 750 or may even be an 850. After searching and talking to people, I emailed Holley tech support for guidance, But I will post the pics here as well, if anyone can help, it will be much appreciated.​
3.2 I also know that the regulator, a MagnaFuel, but not sure about the model, as most of the identification is missing​
4. Electrics, the alternator on this thing is a gen 1, and old. As the car now has no A/C, no stereo, and roll up windows, this will be a much later upgrade a Gen 3 Alt, straight up and easy. The only reason I might speed this up is the noise the belts make running it.

The interior is decent enough, for a 41 year old car, and I will re-upholster the seats, carpet, and dash much later. But, weather-stripping is something I need to take care of before the winter.

The vinyl I now believe was a poorly done, tack on job. The bubbling near the A-pillars, and around the periphery of the roof is showing, and the glue is literally melting under the sun and seeping down the sides of the car. I am debating if I should redo the vinyl, or clean up the roof and leave it bald. I like the idea of the vinyl, it is a rare and unique look, and is what I liked about the car in the first place. But my wife and I are debating a metallic silver on blue for the car.

The other rust will be taken care of on the go, I did see daylight looking down from inside the car when I was tightening the belt bolts, on the front of the rear quarter panel.

This will be an interesting journey.
 
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00 B

very small update, maybe a help to some.

I was thinking about the noise, the high pitched noise coming from my alternator. I noticed it was cyclical, not a continuous squeak, and the pitch ruled out bearing issues. As I was not sure what the cause would be, I wanted to move the alternator upgrade (Post 00 point 4, earlier in the thread) up in the timeline, should it prove to be needed sooner than later in the re-build plan.
I went online and in this video the gentleman talks about a simple test, to find out if the problem is with the belt or if t is the pulley. Low and behold, after running the car for a few minutes and the squeaking unbearable, I poured some water and poof, the sound was gone. Putting my mind at more ease, as a belt is an easier and less costly task than a full alternator upgrade that is now back in its original slot in the re-build timeline.
 
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00 D

I can now confirm:

1. Carb is a Mighty Demon, 750 CFM
2. Fuel Regulator is a Magnafuel MP-9833, good for 1600+ HP applications @4-12 psi fuel boost
3. Alternator is a Gen-3, I previously thought it was an older gen-1. But it is in poor condition, so the upgrade is now a repair (00 B above)
 
00 B

very small update, maybe a help to some.

I was thinking about the noise, the high pitched noise coming from my alternator. I noticed it was cyclical, not a continuous squeak, and the pitch ruled out bearing issues. As I was not sure what the cause would be, I wanted to move the alternator upgrade (Post 00 point 4, earlier in the thread) up in the timeline, should it prove to be needed sooner than later in the re-build plan.
I went online and in this video the gentleman talks about a simple test, to find out if the problem is with the belt or if t is the pulley. Low and behold, after running the car for a few minutes and the squeaking unbearable, I poured some water and poof, the sound was gone. Putting my mind at more ease, as a belt is an easier and less costly task than a full alternator upgrade that is now back in its original slot in the re-build timeline.
This is my personal test of the belt and pulleys using the referenced method above
 
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00 E

So I am documenting everything on Stoppie, one of the steps naturally is to look at the sparks and I found them to be a run of the mill set, the ASF 42CA set. Should I stick with these moving forward, they are quite cheap

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Those are the ones you want. Good ole copper core plugs.
I agree 100%. I have tried to run platinums and other sorts of overpriced fancy plugs in my big blocks, and it did nothing but hurt performance. In most of the cases they would barely idle. Each time the problems were solved by swapping back to the bare-bones copper core Motorcraft spark plugs. I don't recommend anything else but the standard plugs unless you're running extreme boost levels, really high compression, or you have a modern engine with higher swirl/tumble rates.
 
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00 F

I went for a drive the other day, and I noticed that the car almost dies at WOT, but mid throttle and a little more it goes very well. So I was messing around with the carb, and I noticed that fuel is sprayed only from the rear jets (closer to the firewall), not the front (I am not sure about terminology). Even when I pushed the throttle to WOT and looked at the jets, there is clearly fuel spray from the rear, but not the front. I am guessing the screws are closed shut? a re-build / or renew kit is forth coming now more than ever.

I also noticed a nasty sound coming from the steering, and I checked for power steering fluid and re-topped it, indicating there is a leak as well that needs taking care of sometime soon. The cooling on the car was causing me some concern, I topped off the radiator with coolant, it is running a little cooler now, but more work on that is also needed.

The air cleaner on the car is a 10 x 2, a little small by the calculations. The numbers tell me that @6500 RPM and for my 347, I need a 12 x 3, or a 14 x 2, whatever the next size is. So, air cleaner is now on the list.

Other than the sparks needing to be replaced, I have been enjoying the car, it is running well. The cooler months are upon us, and I will be driving it even more.
 
There is an accelerator pump that make the squirters work, the lever hangs out from under the float bowel and a lever pushes on it, you should be able to push on the lever and make the squirters work, if not yank the bowl off and replace the accelerator pump.
 
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An accelerator pump has nothing to do with nothing coming out of the boosters at WOT. On a Holley carb, you can hold the throttle open and look down into the venturies, and watch fuel being pulled into the throttle bores simply by the process of the siphoning effect that is created. If there is no noticeable fuel coming out of the boosters, something is wrong with that circuit, NOT the accelerator pump. The squirters that shoot a shot of gas that are tied to the accelerator pump circuit are between the primary bores. Their purpose is to add fuel when the throttle blades are initially opened to “ cover the bog” that would happen otherwise. Once that car is moving, the boosters help the engine to pull fuel into the engine using engine vacuum after that.
Something is plugged up on the primary booster circuit( the front half) of that carb.
 
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An accelerator pump has nothing to do with nothing coming out of the boosters at WOT. On a Holley carb, you can hold the throttle open and look down into the venturies, and watch fuel being pulled into the throttle bores simply by the process of the siphoning effect that is created. If there is no noticeable fuel coming out of the boosters, something is wrong with that circuit, NOT the accelerator pump. The squirters that shoot a shot of gas that are tied to the accelerator pump circuit are between the primary bores. Their purpose is to add fuel when the throttle blades are initially opened to “ cover the bog” that would happen otherwise. Once that car is moving, the boosters help the engine to pull fuel into the engine using engine vacuum after that.
Something is plugged up on the primary booster circuit( the front half) of that carb.
Agreed it has a plugged jet(s) or the wrong venturi gasket if there is no fuel from the front two
However the car would be falling on its face the whole band not just wot
 
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mansour, 3.73 is a chev ratio
Your Ford if an 8 inch should be 3.55 or 3.90
Easy to check mark both tires and the driveline rotate the wheels one rev and count the driveline revs
That is a good carb but a lot of carb for a 302-347
It will need small jets depending on your altitude 67-70
Put a gigantor 909 radiator in it
You are building more heat than the factory cooling system can handle
Do not run rusty coolant
 
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Ok, but my understanding was the squirters were not squirting, but Mike is correct about the boosters, which better matches the symptoms he is describing.
And in the light of day I agree with you. It’s the way he was describing his symptoms ( and thinking he was talking about a running engine) that threw me off.
The Accelerator pump “ squirter” or discharge nozzles appear to be what he’s talking about, ( as you have noted) and not the boosters in the throttle bores. It helps me understand stuff when people at least know what to call them,…..that way I don’t just rush out, and offer up a whole bunch of “alternative facts”.
 
mansour, 3.73 is a chev ratio
Your Ford if an 8 inch should be 3.55 or 3.90
Easy to check mark both tires and the driveline rotate the wheels one rev and count the driveline revs
That is a good carb but a lot of carb for a 302-347
It will need small jets depending on your altitude 67-70
Put a gigantor 909 radiator in it
You are building more heat than the factory cooling system can handle
Do not run rusty coolant
Wrong o Ghost rider. Ford 8.8‘s come from the factory with 3.73’s. Only Crotchedy old 8”, and 9” rears had a 3.90 ratio, and that isn’t a ratio for the newer rear end.

* If from what i’m reading is right.
 
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