Feels good to be "that guy"...

[rivermobster]

1975. Just built my first car. 67 Mustang, with a nascar 406 engine I bought and built for it.

I knew how to build an engine, and the rest of the car, but I didn't know jack shit about tuning.

I took it to Gale Banks, and he got it all dialed in for me. Happy camper was I.

So this morning, there is a car waiting for me, that was dropped of at the end of last week, while I was at the river. Sweet little 66 Mustang that the dad had built with his son. Really nice looking car!

But OMG...

The thing was running on maybe four cylinders at best. Come to find out not only was the firing order wrong, but they had the number one plug wire in the wrong place! I tried the 302HO firing order. No go. Tried the 289 firing order. No go. Pulled ALL the wires, figured out where #1 should be, and wired it with the 302HO firing order. Boom. Fires right up, but still doesn't sound quite right.

Found number 3 and number 7 cylinders were dead. Did a valve adjustment (remember this is a new father/son built engine), cleaned the plugs that were covered in fuel (from never firing due to the wrong firing order) and the thing started and purred like a kitten.

Customer just came by and he is absolutely ecstatic! He took it to some other (douche bag) shop and was told to drive it how it was for 500 miles and then bring it back to him. WTF!!!

The customer took it to this other shop first, cause he was like me, way back in the day. He did a great job building the car, but took it to a shop to get it running for him, and that's how they gave him the car back.

Felt like I had come full circle today. Felt good to see this guy so damm happy. He had no clue it would run like it does now. He is a happy camper today.

So in the end...

it didn't suck to be "that guy" today.

 

[Inland Air Balance]

Good job Joe. Now maybe he will have a tale to tell in 40 years.

 

[rivermobster]

Good job Joe. Now maybe he will have a tale to tell in 40 years.

His son might...

The dad is my age, the son is 17. Him and his dad built this car for him for high school. The car was a complete pile when they started on it! Awesome father and son project.

:thumbup:

 

[Moneypit]

Years ago I had a screaming 69 GTS 340 Dart. Neighborhood kid was building a Mustang to "blow my doors off"... An older kid was helping him, and after a summer of work it wouldn't start... Fire everywhere except where it suppose to be...Banging in the carb, belching in the exhaust... They had checked, and checked, and rechecked the wiring... Firing order was right....Finally they came to me for help, which was hard for them...One quick look and I saw the problem... They had it wired clockwise... I could have just told them, but I made them find it by looking back in the "Blue Motor Manual" and spotting where the wires were in the cap.... Once that was corrected it purred like a kitten....Of course it couldn't stay with the Dart through even 2 gears...
Ray

 

[Go-Fly]

Nice.

 

[River Runnin]

No! ...It sucks to be that guy! .... That Doesn't post pics!!

 

[rivermobster]

No! ...It sucks to be that guy! .... That Doesn't post pics!!

I don't wanna post a pic of the car, cause it's a Small world, and the guy is a LEO!

But, this should give you an idea of the kind of job him and his son did...

 

[TomD]

Nice Joe!

 

[WildHorses24]

Nice job Joe, I wish I would have heard this story before you tuned my bronco! [emoji23]
Also reminds me of Scott’s 67 mustang that your former employer wired to the standard 302 instead of the HO firing order.[emoji6]


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[rivermobster]

Nice job Joe, I wish I would have heard this story before you tuned my bronco! [emoji23]
Also reminds me of Scott’s 67 mustang that your former employer wired to the standard 302 instead of the HO firing order.[emoji6]


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Shit, I can't remember your Bronco?? I do remember your dads though. Super clean!

In the end, I was the one that got Scott's car running. Full stainless Magnaflow exhaust (he installed). First thing he said when he heard it running was...

This fucking car sounds like shit!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Flowmaster to the rescue.

Such an outstanding car...

 

[WildHorses24]

Shit, I can't remember your Bronco?? I do remember your dads though. Super clean!

In the end, I was the one that got Scott's car running. Full stainless Magnaflow exhaust (he installed). First thing he said when he heard it running was...

This fucking car sounds like shit!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

Flowmaster to the rescue.

Such an outstanding car...

View attachment 805147 View attachment 805148

It was a badass ride and I remember you found the problem right off!

My bronco was the yellow turd, you rebuilt my Holley TA, tuned and re-jet it, before my Sierra trip.

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[rivermobster]

It was a badass ride and I remember you found the problem right off!

My bronco was the yellow turd, you rebuilt my Holley TA, tuned and re-jet it, before my Sierra trip.
View attachment 805149


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Bitchin ride. I recall something about the trip now that you said that, but that's about it! lol

I sent you a customer yesterday. Hopefully that worked out. :thumbup:

 

[wzuber]

Nice work there rivermobster. Speaking of work, how's that elec. class dealio coming along? Any dates set for that yet?

 

[wzuber]

tuning..that reminds me..do you guys have a good functioning distributor curving machine there?

 

[DaveC]

Did you check with “That Guy” to make sure it was OK to be “that guy”

Remember what happened years ago when we had two “that guys”

 

[rivermobster]

tuning..that reminds me..do you guys have a good functioning distributor curving machine there?

We do not. I just curve the distributor in place on the engine.

Works great, except for on Chebbys! I hope the guy that had the brilliant idea, of putting the distributor in the back of the engine, is rotting in hell somewhere!

J/K.

 

[wzuber]

We do not. I just curve the distributor in place on the engine.

Works great, except for on Chebbys! I hope the guy that had the brilliant idea, of putting the distributor in the back of the engine, is rotting in hell somewhere!

J/K.

lol....I hear that. He musta been a "set it and forget" minded fellow. haha Most boats make it a breeze ether way. I just thought since you guys work on old school stuff you might still have one around in use. There must be one big pile of them in the scrap yards somewhere because everyone I ask says no. Thanks for the reply.

 

[rivermobster]

lol....I hear that. He musta been a "set it and forget" minded fellow. haha Most boats make it a breeze ether way. I just thought since you guys work on old school stuff you might still have one around in use. There must be one big pile of them in the scrap yards somewhere because everyone I ask says no. Thanks for the reply.

I think they went by the wayside, when digital adjustable timing lights came into play...

Why pull a distributor, if you dont have to? Back in the day, that was basically the only way to do it.

 

[charlyox]

I put a crate motor in my 66 Mustang. Luckily I read the paperwork and it said it was a 5.0 H.O. and that the firing order was different than a regular 5.0 or I would have been playing hell like your client.

 

[wzuber]

I think they went by the wayside, when digital adjustable timing lights came into play...

Why pull a distributor, if you dont have to? Back in the day, that was basically the only way to do it.

ya, I see your point. I was just thinkin on a replacement unit it would be convenient to pop it in a machine and dial it in there, then once installed a small adjustment as necessary and done/dialed in. thx

 

[wzuber]

Back in the late 70's my parents had a 3/4 ton ford truck with a tired engine, collapsed a lifter on the way home from vacation. We managed to baby it home from Thousand Oaks to Upland on the clattering lifter. My dad and I swapped out the 360 c.i. eng. with a reman.( I was 15 then and of course sooooo much help, I only broke like 3 bolts haha) It ran ok when we fired it, no missing or anything but it was a bit lazy and rather disappointing for new eng. We took it over to Alex Acosta at Performance Tuning Specialists in Upland for a carb rebuild (2 barrel no less haha) and tuning. What an incredible difference..it seemed magical to me, even the throttle peddle work smooth and quick. It really exemplified the value a smart tuning guy.

 

[rivermobster]

ya, I see your point. I was just thinkin on a replacement unit it would be convenient to pop it in a machine and dial it in there, then once installed a small adjustment as necessary and done/dialed in. thx

Most new ones will come with the instructions on how the distributor is currently set, and how to change those setting if you want to. They come with different springs and cams, that are all marked.

I like the Pertronix distributors. The ready to run line is easy peasy to set up. No additional spark box required.

They make a ton of different models for any application. Lemme know if you need help picking one out.

 

[rivermobster]

Customer was ok with me posting a pic of his car...

Dam nice father/son project!!

 

[wzuber]

Most new ones will come with the instructions on how the distributor is currently set, and how to change those setting if you want to. They come with different springs and cams, that are all marked.

I like the Pertronix distributors. The ready to run line is easy peasy to set up. No additional spark box required.

They make a ton of different models for any application. Lemme know if you need help picking one out.

cool thx.. how r their points conversion unit? I'm converting/swapping in a marine dist. for a non marine unit in a BBF for a friend. Using their coil too as was recc. on their site.

 

[rivermobster]

cool thx.. how r their points conversion unit? I'm converting/swapping in a marine dist. for a non marine unit in a BBF for a friend. Using their coil too as was recc. on their site.

Awesome. I use em all the time. I've had one go bad in 8 years?

If it's a distributor that they don't make a conversion kit for, bring it to me. The owner here knows one of the design guys over there. He's hand made us kits for all kinna crazy applications, that they don't show any listings for. They are local in San Dimas.

One part you have to be careful about is, making SURE you are using the correct resistance coil for the ignitor you are using. Ask me how I know this.

There is also a voltage requirement for the ignitor kits. Some will work with a resistor in place, and some will not. Make sure to keep your eye on that part of the install as well.

 

[Moneypit]

I remember back in the day you could take two identical cars, "Curve" the distributor in one and run them. The one with the curved dist would run circles around the other one.. Well not that drastic, but you could certainly tell which one was "tuned"....Way more important when you start playing with other stuff, gotta match it up...
Ray

 

[rivermobster]

I remember back in the day you could take two identical cars, "Curve" the distributor in one and run them. The one with the curved dist would run circles around the other one.. Well not that drastic, but you could certainly tell which one was "tuned"....Way more important when you start playing with other stuff, gotta match it up...
Ray

Yep.

Was watching Engine Masters yesterday (they took and LS engine and put a beer keg on it for a plenum, just to see what it would do, funny shit!) and one of the previous episodes was them playing with the timing on a 383, on the dyno. They lost way over 100hp from not having the timing set correctly. No other changes were made.

Proper tuning is everything.

Oh and they made the beer keg look like a shark, in honor of shark week.

 

[obnoxious001]

Didn't know you were out here last weekend, we had ski races at the Springs.

Did you happen to offer any suggestion or help cleaning up the misc wires and plug wires on that thing?

 

[rivermobster]

Didn't know you were out here last weekend, we had ski races at the Springs.

Did you happen to offer any suggestion or help cleaning up the misc wires and plug wires on that thing?

Yeah. It was all cleaned up before he left. Went by the house and your truck was parked down by the dock...

I had a buncha peeps with me.

I'll be out again with OC pretty quick. Probably look for you then.