Awaking the Beast

I am absolutely giddy right now.  My buddy Greg came into town this weekend to help me install my new ignition system.  I picked up a Crane Cams HI-6RC Ignition Kit to replace the points distributor in the car.  There are a couple of reasons why I picked up this kit.  First, it is pretty much plug and play and second it comes with a small distributor cap that looks like the one I am replacing.  I'm not a big fan of those large GM style HEI distributor caps, especially if it is going to be front an center as they are on Ford's engines.

Installation diagram

Overall, installation was fairly simple.  The hardest part was deciding where to place the ignition box and coil.  We wanted to put the box inside the cabin, but after pulling out the glove box and center console, there really was no reasonable space to place it.  Some guys online had mentioned putting it inside the glove box, but I wanted to keep that functional.  (On a side note, since the center console was out, I took the time to adjust the stereo knobs so they moved a little bit more freely and didn't bind on the console face anymore.)  So we decided to mount the system on the driver's side inner fender next to the widow washing reservoir.  In order to get the box to mount on the sidewall, we needed to shift the window washer motor a bit closer to the firewall, but after that everything was good.  We also mounted the ignition coil on the driver's side shock tower.

For the distributor, I pulled out the old one without marking the timing, whoops.  That meant we had to remove the valve covers and find top dead center (TDC) on cylinder #1 (front of the engine, passenger side when looking at it from the front).  Once we found TDC, we placed the distributor in the block and snapped everything together.  We also had to cut and crimp on ends to the new spark plug wires and when all the wires were plugged in firing order (1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8), we tried to fire it up.  Damn thing wouldn't fire.  After some troubleshooting, here is your top tip:  The distributor rotates counter-clockwise.  Whoops #2 for me.  Once we fixed that mistake, it fired right up.  We set the initial timing to 8 degrees BTDC and we were good to go.  We took it for a quick test drive and found that it was backfiring like a mothertrucker.  I have been having problems with it running rich, so the next step was to tune the carburetor.

Under Pressure

Just wanted to write a quick post following up on the Chasing Oil Leaks post.  I've been busy with school that I really haven't been able to post and follow-up on it.  I tested the oil pressure and it was up around 60psi.  That is around the high end of normal, so there were some suggestions to try and reduce the oil pressure in the system.  The car did not really have a PCV system in place to relieve the crankcase pressure so the thought was that it would help the engine to put one in.  So I went out and picked up a PCV valve, oil breather, rubber hosing, a set of new valve covers and gaskets.

BEFORE:

Before:  No real PCV system in place

AFTER:

New valve covers with PCV valve going to carb vacuum 

Other side with oil breather connected to bottom of air cleaner

RESULT:
Whelp, pretty much the engine bay looks cleaner.  The new steel/rubber valve cover gaskets fixed the oil leak onto the manifold, but I am still leaking oil under the car.  Pretty much accepted that it is the rear main oil seal and will probably seek out someone to fix that this fall sometime.  But for now, I am going to enjoy the car.  There are some good car shows coming up that I want to go to, and I like that now the car looks more like an original HiPo engine bay.