Madmike, You Are A Bad Influence And An Alabama Crazy @$$

[95BlueStallion]

Yea, I wouldn't do a T5, and @madmike1157 is making a pretty strong argument for a 4R70W. T5s are like roller block 302s- swapping to it from something else isn't much of an upgrade, and you'll probably just end up breaking it anyway. Unless you were going to do something like an Astro A5, in which I'd be on board with 100%.

I dont ever plan to do much with this truck, honestly. I will continue to upgrade my GT before the Ranger gets much. I dont think the engine makes much more than 300 ft lbs of torque, so Im sure a T5 would last with my driving style. I am starting to think that Mike's idea sounds a lot easier though, so I will most likely go that route after all. The wheels and stance are free updates, so that is the only reason I am doing that to the truck.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

So are you saying that this would be as simple as a bolt in affair with the exception of my drive shaft and that box to tune it? The guy I bought the truck from was talking about his tranny guy and how I can call if I want him to try to source me anything or sell the C6 in the event I do a swap. I am guessing this guy can easily get me the 4R70W and go through it to make it solid, but I would like to do the install myself.

here you go chief:
http://www.usshift.com/

 

[95BlueStallion]

Thanks Mike, might need to hit you up on PM's if I run into a snag now that you went and talked me into this. Now Im gonna have an even better nice little truck due to your poor influences. Such an ass.

 

[95BlueStallion]

So the dang truck wasnt idling all that great in the cooler morning weather, so I decided to do a tune up after work. Slapped in new plugs (previous owner just put on new wires but left the old plugs...), put a new cap and rotor on the dizzy, and then realized the dizzy hold down was loose. I bumped the timing a couple degrees and snugged her down and she idles great, and is way more responsive. That made me want to figure out what carb I have, and go buy a rebuild kit because it has a hesitation when coming off a stop. My local Advanced Auto had the rebuild kit I needed, so once I get that done and having it running to its fullest potential (as far as I am capable of anyway), then I will be chopping the springs and giving it the stance. No pics from tonight's fun, but Im strangely excited to do this carb rebuild. It will be my first one.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

So the dang truck wasnt idling all that great in the cooler morning weather, so I decided to do a tune up after work. Slapped in new plugs (previous owner just put on new wires but left the old plugs...), put a new cap and rotor on the dizzy, and then realized the dizzy hold down was loose. I bumped the timing a couple degrees and snugged her down and she idles great, and is way more responsive. That made me want to figure out what carb I have, and go buy a rebuild kit because it has a hesitation when coming off a stop. My local Advanced Auto had the rebuild kit I needed, so once I get that done and having it running to its fullest potential (as far as I am capable of anyway), then I will be chopping the springs and giving it the stance. No pics from tonight's fun, but Im strangely excited to do this carb rebuild. It will be my first one.

What kind of carb are you rebuilding?

 

[95BlueStallion]

What kind of carb are you rebuilding?

Holley 600 cfm 4 barrel. I plan to lay out all the new parts, and just take my sweet time. I know NOTHING about carbs, so I am looking forward to learning as I go.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Holley 600 cfm 4 barrel. I plan to lay out all the new parts, and just take my sweet time. I know NOTHING about carbs, so I am looking forward to learning as I go.

Go out in the woods,.....deep , deep in the woods.

Find a fallen tree,......a really big, round tree,..one that is at least 2' in diameter.

Climb up on the fallen tree and get up on one leg.

Start hopping.

When you fall off the log,....you'll know how to rebuild a model 1850 Holley 4 bbl.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

Holley 600 cfm 4 barrel. I plan to lay out all the new parts, and just take my sweet time. I know NOTHING about carbs, so I am looking forward to learning as I go.

You picked the right brand to start with for your first rebuild. It is an easy design to understand, and Holley has published books and books on rebuilding and tuning them. Your public library should have a copy or Amazon.com too if you have a reader or software. Something I used to do before their non stick blue gaskets came out is coat the bowl and plate gaskets with chap stick. The waxy balm helped keep the gaskets from sticking without causing leaks. Also use safety glasses to keep from getting splashed by the cleaner or spray. It burns.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Well I took her all apart this afternoon after work, and to my surprise it was already recently rebuilt. All the rubber O rings were fresh, as well as the gaskets. I basically just gave it a good cleaning and put it back together. My inline fuel filter was gross, so I replaced it and I plan on dropping the tank to clean it out as well as flushing new gas through the inline electric pump to clean it as well. I feel like after cleaning the carb and getting a new fuel filter, its really dumb to keep letting the junk in the bottom of the tank pass through. I have another month before its time to daily drive it, so why not. Plus I need to put a new sending unit in to get my fuel gauge working again.

Edit: I do think I will look up one of the tuning books so I can learn how to fine tune the old girl a little bit.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

I know this is heresy on this site, but unless it is a crazy camshaft, you should be able to get a Holley 600 (I might go 650 cfm if I was buying new) to run as well as Fuel Injection on a motor like this. It might get lower mileage and will be questionable on a sniffer test and never pass a visual test, but the right tweaking will do wonders. If you were wondering about the visual test, the extra 2 to 4 cylinders will give it away. I have had carbs that were the only thing to start when it was way too dang cold to go outside, and my current carb car fires up quicker than the F.I. vehicles we have.

When you first described your issue, I wondered "Does it have electric choke or a manual/cable choke?" There are two adjustments in this system. One controls how far closed the big choke flap is. That is run by the cable or round electric thing on the passenger side. The other is the high idle adjustment screw and cam. It is adjusted by a screw that you only get to from underneath with the throttle open. Get them balanced right (and get enough gas from the accelerator pump to start with) and it will purr right off the bat and stay at a good high idle speed until the choke gets hot or until you back the cable off.

Speaking of the electric choke coil assembly, MAKE SURE it has a strong 12v wire that is switched with the ignition. But do not use the wire from the ignition coil. Some ignition supply wires have resistors or resistor wire to protect the points. Then the choke coil is sluggish that way and will not get hot at the right time. Then the choke stays on, the secondary side may not open, and you are running rich all the time.

For the rest of the tuning, I would have to know if it is a double pumper or a vacuum secondary, and the Holley books will cover all that until your head spins. They will cover jets and power valves and the air bleeds, most of which should be close for the size of the motor and carb out of the box. But you never know what the last owner did. If you have a Vac. Secondary carb, the quick change kits for the secondary springs are worth EVERY penny. Do it once and you will agree.

THIS IS MY REQUEST FOR RELATED HELP, PLEASE. One other tuning thing I have never run into is a chart of what the colored accelerator pump cam fuel curves actually look like. So if you find a good graph, or a description of what each color is supposed to do, please post and credit where it comes from. On a hill with a full car, it leans out under initial tip in. It is not enough to ever notice with one person in the car. Otherwise, I just have to guess and test. I just want a little more fuel under part throttle when my car is loaded (and the driver is not of course).

You are right about Mad Mike being a bad influence on you, but flushing the tank will not hurt, especially if you are already in the area. He sets a heck of an example of how to do it right.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

So the dang truck wasnt idling all that great in the cooler morning weather, so I decided to do a tune up after work. Slapped in new plugs (previous owner just put on new wires but left the old plugs...), put a new cap and rotor on the dizzy, and then realized the dizzy hold down was loose. I bumped the timing a couple degrees and snugged her down and she idles great, and is way more responsive. That made me want to figure out what carb I have, and go buy a rebuild kit because it has a hesitation when coming off a stop. My local Advanced Auto had the rebuild kit I needed, so once I get that done and having it running to its fullest potential (as far as I am capable of anyway), then I will be chopping the springs and giving it the stance. No pics from tonight's fun, but Im strangely excited to do this carb rebuild. It will be my first one.

Did you use a timing light to make sure you put the distributor back in the right neighborhood, or did you just do it by ear? I ask because you should set the idle screws after setting the timing. Old school tool time, you will want a vacuum gauge to help make sure the screws are all set, then do the idle speed screw. All that should be in the tuning books. The vac. gauge will be helpful with other tuning issues too. It will not just sit there.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Thanks for all the info! It is a vacuum secondary carb with a manual choke. I put the choke cable back right where it was, as it seemed to work really well and pulls the choke flap all the way closed before running out of cable. I wonder about those secondary springs, because it does seem to struggle in the top end versus how well it revs up to about 3500 RPM's. I did not adjust any of the screws, as I want to have a book and a better understanding of how it all works before I make adjustments. It runs pretty good as is, so I wont need to do much I hope. I ended up buying a new replacement gas tank, a new sending until, and I may buy a new electric inline fuel pump depending on if the current one flushes out clean or not. I want a nice clean fuel system since I am doing all this at once.

As far as the timing, the idle is solid, it just wanted to die in the cooler weather. When I realized the distributor was loose, there is a mark from a previous owner that I could see where it was supposed to meet a line on the intake. Once I realigned it, the idle raised just a hair and the truck had way better performance off idle. I advanced it just a tad past the intake line up, and it ran best down the road at that point. It had just backed itself off from being loose. I having a timing light, but again I may wait until I have a book for the carb and tune it one time properly. For now I am just playing and seeing what I can do by feel.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

If it stumbles when cold and has a manual choke, 1. Make sure the big flap closes and opens all the way with the cable. It sounds like you did but check again. 2. Make sure the high idle cam moves freely with the throttle open and motor off. 3. Tighten the screw for the high idle cam until it idles high enough while choked cold. Unless there is a vsc leak, it should be that easy. That screw is rarely tight enough out of the box for my taste.

 

[NTO_GUY]

Like the truck. Low, wide wheels, and fender flares will be awesome. My first vehicle was an 84 Ranger. It had a ford probe engine and a 4 speed. A idler pulley broke as I was learning to drive it. Truck over heated and then it was gone. Aaaand that's my story about the ford ranger I had for a week.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Ive always been leary of JC Whitney, but Ive officially made my first and last purchase from them. I bought a stock replacement gas tank, and sure as s hit it isnt right. After calling, they have two different options, but the only differences are fuel capacity, neither comes with a filler neck or bigger hole for the stock sending unit. It wont be that hard to modify the new one to fit, but its annoying that "stock replacement" isnt all that stock. Ive got the fuel out of the stock tank, but how much time should I let it sit (or can I put some baking soda or other powder in to kill the fumes and residue) before I remove the needed parts and weld them to the new tank?

 

[7991LXnSHO]

DO NOT WELD ON THE OLD TANK. Radiator shops clean them out and then fill them with water. That way there is no oxygen and fumes inside to blow up. And they still are a little Crazy. Why you want to make old parts not smell like gas I do not know. please explain.

 

[84Ttop]

DO NOT WELD ON THE OLD TANK. Radiator shops clean them out and then fill them with water. That way there is no oxygen and fumes inside to blow up. And they still are a little Crazy. Why you want to make old parts not smell like gas I do not know. please explain.

I have welded on well over 100 old gas tanks and have never had any trouble what so ever. I wash them out with water followed by a solution of PurplePower and water and weld away. The only one I have ever seen blow up was after a guy cleaned it with brake cleaner (dumbass) and he blew his eyebrows clean off, neat trick if you ask me!

 

[7991LXnSHO]

I have welded on well over 100 old gas tanks and have never had any trouble what so ever. I wash them out with water followed by a solution of PurplePower and water and weld away. The only one I have ever seen blow up was after a guy cleaned it with brake cleaner (dumbass) and he blew his eyebrows clean off, neat trick if you ask me!

That makes you an expert or a lucky madman! The radiator places seem to be reluctant to weld them. A foolish bodyman drilled out spot welds from my trunk floor without removing the tank on a GM A body and I had to get some holes fixed or demand a new tank.
Speaking of stupid, I had a classmate who cut the gas tank straps from a demo derby project with a cutting torch. The fumes from the vent went up and so did his low IQ by the the he left the hospital.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Im not welding on the old tank, just cutting off the filler neck and the mount for the sending unit. I will be welding them on the NEW tank.

 

[95BlueStallion]

So I got the tank situation all figured out tonight. I bought the stock sending unit that actually fits the smaller hole of the new tank (thanks Summit Racing for having the correct "stock" sending unit and getting it to me in one day with standard shipping). The other "stock" sending unit is going in the trash because I already ditched the box and receipt when I opened it the other day, and who knows what it belongs to. I washed the old tank out with dish soap and water, and allowed it to dry before deciding to make life interesting using a three foot long fuse of toilet paper to see what would happen in my back yard. Holy hell was it just like a jet engine when it lit after being all washed out! I have a video of me lighting it again later, and each time I go out it will reignite with a little less oomph. Dont mess around with old gas tanks, the residue will continue to reignite, and reignite over and over! I managed to get the filler neck chopped off without any burns, and decided to use fuel tank repair putty and sheet metal screws to attach it rather than welding. My lack of welding experience led me to believe I would pry end up with pinholes and be worse off than what I chose to do. Here are some pics of the old gal all done up.

Out with the old:



With the use of these friends I got it cut out, all the rust removed, and shaped to fit snug on the new tank:



And the end result. For those of you doubting this, the filler neck extends around two to three inches into the tank, and that putty is completely underneath all that excess metal up to the neck, not just around the edges. That thing isnt going anywhere.



@madmike1157 I had your old sig character rolling through my mind as tonights events unfolded. The only thing I didnt do was pour the gas on myself first.