My '85 MGM, "Maisa"

[Arquemann]

I like having a book right there at my side should I need to reference it. I may watch a video or two about how people do something, but not when I'm elbows deep in a project. When I'm working, I'm easily annoyed by people who try to be funny, useless bullshit and advertisements. No provisions for an O2 sensor on my '69 Plymouth and I wasn't about to make one. It took me one afternoon to get things mostly dialed in and then several other hours to fine tune the jets in. Ran damn fine after I was done.

I mainly watched videos to get an understanding on how and what the different things affect.
Dunno what I'd reference from a book if tuning a Holley tbh. Reading plugs would suck and I wouldn't have wanted to do that. Tuning a carb by feel, without an O2 sensor will probably result in a somewhat rich mixture overall. I need my AFRs in check due to emissions checks aswell as fuel being damn expensive.

Thunderhead289 and Muscle Car Solutions were by far the best sources for carb tuning knowledge, no bullshit attached. Uncle Tony has some good tidbits, but he has that stubborn-old-bastard-attitude I can't really stand.

Even though this Holley of mine has been the first carb I've tinkered with, I'm kind of a Holley believer now. And while at it, the allure of an EFI kit has gone away.
The single biggest problem I've had with the Holley is that I cant find vacuum plugs that don't deteriorate and leak in a year...

[DerekTheGreat]

Read the book and find out. I know those channels, and by the time I watched their stuff, I knew what they were trying to say and more. Eyeballing plugs only gets you so far, you really need high power magnification if you're going to be serious about it. I didn't do that shit, I read the book, used the knowledge to identify my symptoms and went from there. Found I was running too lean and so I fattened it up. In addition, I had to up my accelerator pump nozzles as well as step up the accelerator pump cam.

The "stubborn, old bastard attitude" comes from being hardened by experience and the bullshit people pushed on someone as they were younger, and then finding "the right/better way" on your own as well as realizing you were fed bullshit and thus on the wrong route.

I'm a Holley believer too. I feel anyone who is against them has never taken the time to understand 'em and just expects to plop a carb on and go. I was that way until I broke down and schooled myself. One of the "stubborn, old bastards" I knew gave me his attitude. Something along the lines of, "Buy the book and learn or buy a 'For Sale' sign!" It's not bad, it's constructive criticism.

[Arquemann]

Read the book and find out. I know those channels, and by the time I watched their stuff, I knew what they were trying to say and more. Eyeballing plugs only gets you so far, you really need high power magnification if you're going to be serious about it. I didn't do that shit, I read the book, used the knowledge to identify my symptoms and went from there. Found I was running too lean and so I fattened it up. In addition, I had to up my accelerator pump nozzles as well as step up the accelerator pump cam.

The "stubborn, old bastard attitude" comes from being hardened by experience and the bullshit people pushed on someone as they were younger, and then finding "the right/better way" on your own as well as realizing you were fed bullshit and thus on the wrong route.

I'm a Holley believer too. I feel anyone who is against them has never taken the time to understand 'em and just expects to plop a carb on and go. I was that way until I broke down and schooled myself. One of the "stubborn, old bastards" I knew gave me his attitude. Something along the lines of, "Buy the book and learn or buy a 'For Sale' sign!" It's not bad, it's constructive criticism.

The books and old farts tell you how to tune without an O2. I know of that, vacuum gauges, lean bog, rich bog, bucking, stuttering, throttle response and any other way an engine will tell you how it's running.
A wideband O2 sensor will just tell you what's going on. Of course you have to know something to go on from there.

An O2 sensor removes a huge portion of the guesswork and trial and error from carb tuning: If you're dumb and/or ignorant you can get only so far.
I ventured beyond what the O2 sensor says to find how lean I can go on cruise and did changes by feel, even if they didn't show up in the AFRs

The stubborn, stuck up attitude is what I don't like. You can use your knowledge for good, share it and not berate others that use different ways. Uncle Tony (for example) stays in his ways, because he gets the results he wants with them, it doesn't matter to him that there are new faster, easier and more precise ways available. He doesn't use a wideband because he's stuck in the past and wants to stay there. The bad part is the touch of arrogance that comes from it.

I'm taking all the tools at my reach and using them to achieve the result I'm looking for. And when I'm done redoing the accelerator pump, I'm as far as I can with the carb that I have, as it doesn't have adjustable air bleeds. It'd take a long-ass time to fine tune a carb to that point without the O2, most would never get to that point.

[Arquemann]

The ratchet strap holding up the front of the transmission had failed at some point. Under static load on a smooth garage floor... So the trans was sitting on the cooler lines with the tail and yoke jammed into the trans tunnel. Made a heck of a racket when we pushed the car out of the garage. I wonder what my chances are that the trans mount is torn now...

Had to get a jack and new ratchet strap to get the trans back up. Also made sure the ac compressor and ps pump & bracket are still secured properly.
Tow truck should be coming tomorrow and yesterday I was shoveling snow from in front our garage.

[Arquemann]

She's back home again and I'm itching to get at it again. Getting the tow truck instead of renting a trailer was an excellent move, 40 minutes from the truck showing up to me getting out of the MGM in our driveway. 20km drive through town. Easy as pie and I didn't have to do pretty much anything.
Tow was a hundo, compared to trailering, about 70€ for rent, lunch for the helpers and some gas money and you're pretty much the same. And no hassle for organizing everything for the same day.

Didn't do much today, mostly making a to-do list of things to do before dropping in the engine. Preliminary mock up of the fuel pressure reg in front of the upper control arm. Also played with air cleaners. I've come in possession of a Lincoln 460 air cleaner, which has the correct sized hole for the 4bbl Holley. Original CFI cleaner has a larger, odd-sized hole. The 460 cleaner sits lower, which would be nice. I could make the snorkel bit fit on too, though the cleaner might hit the dizzy clocked that way.
Oh and the 460 cleaner is hilariously massive on top of a small block Too big tbh.

[gadget73]

Big air filters are good for flow. If you can do dual snorkels and hoses out to the front of the rad support you get the bonus of a cold air intake

[DerekTheGreat]

Big air filters are good for flow. If you can do dual snorkels and hoses out to the front of the rad support you get the bonus of a cold air intake

Came to say this. With the GM TBI stuff, guys like to find 454 TBI air cleaners for their 305/350 engines as they flow better. I think it looks fine. Doesn't impede anything more than the stock air cleaner does.

[Arquemann]

Plopped in the old dizzy for mock up (wrong gear). The 460 cleaner fits technically, but not really. Doesn't touch the distributor cap, but will hit the plug wires. Also the snorkel hole is pointing right, and right at the ac compressor, so installing a snorkel tube and CAI wouldn't work.

Honestly the 460 cleaner looks more restrictive to my eye. After the filter, the air has a sharp angle and a very low gap under the lid. The lid is almost flat. The filter element is 11"x2" I believe.
Whereas on the CFI cleaner the air path almost completely unhindered after the filter element, which is 9"x2-11/16". Math would say that the CFI filter element has more surface area.

A dual snorkel mod for the factory cleaner would be pretty dope, but the cold air intakes are driver side only and hard to flip even if I managed to get one. And the AC compressor is still right in the way. I've been chatting with a friend, he should be able to 3d print a short adapter for my CFI cleaner so it'll sit nicely on the Holley.

[Arquemann]

Removed all the cowl pieces, all the gaskets under the plastics and the foam end pieces are brittle and falling apart. I'll clean all the crap from the cowl area, spray some cavity wax on the slightly rusty bits and figure out something to replace the seal under the plastic bits. Also found that the ball stud for the wiper arm from the motor is loose, that's probably why my left wiper overtravels.
Might paint the brake booster while its exposed as much as it'll ever be.

Is the cowl area supposed to drain from anywhere else than the center drain point?

[Arquemann]

Cowl is back together, used some acrylic body sealer to seal the cowl plastics to the firewall. Still have to figure out something for the drivers corner so the water won't drip onto the firewall passthroughs by the ECM. Wiper mechanism is back together with some grease in the pivots, seems there's quite a bit of slop in the wiper motor assembly too.

Power washed the engine bay, cleaned up the firewall, sprayed some cavity wax here and there to prevent things rusting any more, too bad its brown. Brushed on some hammer paint on the brake booster, worst eyesore of the engine bay dealt with finally! Also got a sheet of heat/sound insulation foam for the ac box and firewall.

Popped the front up on jackstands, next up is the engine mounts. I suspect a fight coming... Has anyone replaced the mounts without removing the LCAs?
If turns out to be a complete bitch of a job, I might just cut the welded nuts on the old mounts, use rivnuts and bolt the new mounts in from the topside.


Also popped on one of the hubcaps I got last winter. I really like the look. Now I just need 2 or 3 more of them...

[friskyfrankie]

Cowl is back together, used some acrylic body sealer to seal the cowl plastics to the firewall. Still have to figure out something for the drivers corner so the water won't drip onto the firewall passthroughs by the ECM. Wiper mechanism is back together with some grease in the pivots, seems there's quite a bit of slop in the wiper motor assembly too.

Power washed the engine bay, cleaned up the firewall, sprayed some cavity wax here and there to prevent things rusting any more, too bad its brown. Brushed on some hammer paint on the brake booster, worst eyesore of the engine bay dealt with finally! Also got a sheet of heat/sound insulation foam for the ac box and firewall.

Popped the front up on jackstands, next up is the engine mounts. I suspect a fight coming... Has anyone replaced the mounts without removing the LCAs?
If turns out to be a complete bitch of a job, I might just cut the welded nuts on the old mounts, use rivnuts and bolt the new mounts in from the topside.


Also popped on one of the hubcaps I got last winter. I really like the look. Now I just need 2 or 3 more of them...

Like the wheel caps - my friend has some on his '88 CV but they are the Lincoln version. Otherwise, they look quite similar.

[87gtVIC]

.

Popped the front up on jackstands, next up is the engine mounts. I suspect a fight coming... Has anyone replaced the mounts without removing the LCAs?
If turns out to be a complete bitch of a job, I might just cut the welded nuts on the old mounts, use rivnuts and bolt the new mounts in from the topside.

Yes

I have.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum/technical/gmn-reader-s-rides/23560-my-1987-two-door-crown-victoria-aka-the-brown-blob?p=1111108#post1111108

Two are easy to get at but the third one is kinda hard to access because of the LCA. I mention in the thread above that a super shallow 13mm with built in swivel was the key to accessing that one.

[Arquemann]

Thanks for the tips, of course I don't have a wobbly socket and the angle extensions are so floppy the socket just boinks off the bolt head at the slightest hint of torque.
But I managed to get the lower bolt off with a flex-head ratcheting wrench from below with vice grips for leverage. Took about 25 minutes. Most likely won't work to get a bolt tightened back in though...

I was going to do the mount one at a time to not mix sides, but I hit a snag after removing the first one, the new mounts are 3/8" thread where the originals are M10, the bolts don't fit. And its Sunday. The rivnut idea failed when I saw the holes in the crossmember are large and oval.
I think I'll get new bolts for the two uppers and drill out the captive nut in the mount for the shitty one. Throughbolt the bottom one, maybe I'll put an extension nut instead of a regular one on the bottom so a socket won't slip off. If I can find a extension nut with tensile strength more than a block of cheese.

Quite unimpressed with the new engine mounts, they weren't even the cheapest ones. Chinesium anyways. The captive nuts are kinda iffy-looking.
Someone said to first test fit them on the engine side mount ears, atleast they fit fine.

[gadget73]

I've also done it, and yes its a bitch. The wobble socket is your only hope and its still not a lot of fun.

Run a tap through the captive nuts. They aren't cut well and it makes for a big fight trying to get bolts through there.

[Arquemann]

I've also done it, and yes its a bitch. The wobble socket is your only hope and its still not a lot of fun.

Run a tap through the captive nuts. They aren't cut well and it makes for a big fight trying to get bolts through there.

They're fine in that sense, even though they have paint on them, a random 3/8" bolt threaded in just fine by hand.