Flashed the FE for break in tonight..questions
 

Well it happened, been waiting since Monday for a break in the weather. Had her all ready and waited for my pal to show from the Ford dealership. He's a Ford Mechanic and a good guy for standby.

Took forever to get gas to the carb. Broke the line at the inlet to the inline filter and waited till we had it squirt into a cup. Can these get airlocked??
Back together and a few more cranks and it flashed up. My friend didn't even have to touch the distributor. I had static timed it yesterday for 14 deg. Guess that was damn close.

Tonight we ran it between 1500 and 2500 rpm for 25 min.
The only concern was seeing the temp. start to get a little high in those very few last minutes of cam breakin.

110 to 115 C was the hottest we saw at shutdown. Oil was almost as hot. I had my electric puller fan on for the duration. Reasonable for a 25 minute at "1600-2500 rpm standstill" with the hood up?? You think?


Guys My initial oil pressure on cold 10-30W was 65PSI then once it was hot (100-110) It was 30-40 PSI at 1600-2000 rpm
This sound good??

Now a fun part, immediately after turning the key off, I went from a nice 1800-1900 rpm to nothing, I did get a tinge of run on? Is that because the key switch came off at 1900RPM? Remember I have yet to get the timing light on it and the car hasn't been tinkered with yet.

Next in short order was my over flow starting to puke at the over flow nipple off the expansion tank(where the rad cap sits). At first I thought a hose clamp on the lower rad hose was letting go, but then we saw it coming out of the short length of hose that I luckily put onto the nipple and directed downto the ground.

Here comes the really wild part....we saw a little more steam.......then WHOOOOOOF!!!!!! instant sauna!!
Green juice everywhere out of the bottom of the car's rad...we ran for our lives, not knowing what was letting go........funny as hell, as we did the hop and skip-- two step...
Picture this, we had just seconds before, had our noses under the hood looking at the puke tank line...LOL Wet feet galore
( I recall the butcher of baghdad had stories of rad hose grief too)

So, what let go, once the water pump stopped circulating, was the bottom pipe most of us have fashioned to get from the bottom rad nipple to the water pump stub.

"We have separation" was the quote that came to mind!!

You all know that nice piece of metal that most of us have gone to the muffler shop to have bent for us. My piece does not have a lip at either end, like most rad nipples or pipes.

4 gallons of 50/50 had departed my cars cooling system, barely there 2 days.......

So guys what do I do to remedy this?? Have a lip welded to either end of the pipe? Have the muffler shop expand it slightly?

My hose and clamps need a lip obviously to anchor off.

Next question....I filled my expansion tank (FE) to just touching the inner baffle. This is recommended level. Do i have to get a puke tank on the end of the over flow hose for puking and recovery on cool down?? If so what are all you guys doing and where do you mount that??


As for breakin....awesome, sounded great! Not a single leak otherwise. No oil, no gas....no exhaust leaks....Sad that I didn't really get to hear the idle, as Cam break in took priority.

Wanted to hear this Edelbrock RPM package! Holley 850 out of the box was great. The only thing I adjusted was 1.5 turns out on each idle mixture screw (4) Float levels obviously weren't hi.

Last thing I still obviously have to screw with is my McCleod T/O bearing as it's at the bottom of 1/4 of the pedal and will not disengage the clutch enough for me to put it into gear. I think because it is so far down at the end of the pedal, that I just still have some bleeding to do. It was set up for right clearances and travel.

BTW I used 94 octane .....2 Gallons in the car to get it going....after some more farting around its off to the paint shop.

Guys when should I do the first oil change?? Now after cam break in. In my oil (8 qts). I also had added GM's EOS for break-in ( half a can in the filter and the other half in the oil) George G. recommends it, as well as other I have talked to.

Tim

PS for tomorrow, fix the rad pipe, maybe an oil change- depending on you gurus, timing tweaking and some some carb tinkering with a Vac. gage. I am so happy it went well

My guess is that you had air trapped in the cooling system resulting in puking the coolant out when the engine stopped circulating it.

Try leaving the radiator cap off until the thermostat opens and add coolant as it percolates and the level goes down.

good luck

Tim - cam break in results in some pretty hot engines for most people, yours does not sound exceptional.

killing the ignition as you did also often results in a "boil up" - cooling system is at it's top limits, then you remove flow from the engine - hot spots cause boiling and voila - geyser.

Ditto run-on. Later, if the engine still runs on after it has been at normal temps and ticking over for a while you might want to investigate further. My own engine runs on like a pig if I kill the ignition when it has gotten good and hot and from those kind of revs, never does it otherwise. Thinking about some cooler plugs.

A quick fix for your un-beaded coolant pipe is to drill some holes around the periphery and thread some welding or brazing rod of about 2-3mm dia in and out of the holes - instant bead. Worked for me as a quick fix originally (for I lost all my coolant in the same way on initial start up) and is still in place today.

Otherwise, sounds like you had fun.

Double up on the hose clamps. If you ever have to run the car static again, do it outside and have a friend mist the radiator with a garden hose.... no overheat... Blah, Blah, Blah...

Guys good tips thanks!
As for air. The only thing I did do was fill the entire system until i saw it at that specified level in the expansion tank. I did this 2 days prior and it got a chance to burb out. I drilled a 1/8 hole in the top of my thermostat too. I had assumed that it would be ok

Good advice to leave that cap off. I guess I could have monitored it better. Will the cycle of heat and cool cause me to lose a alot out the overflow often or does this only happen until the point that there is no "excess coolant" and it has found a balance

Last thing, my pal had the top of his running shoe's tongue melt to my drivers side side pipe on more than one spot. Most of it is coming off but there are some thicker goops. Would a heat gun work in getting it soft again?

Tim

Tim, another tip, unscrew the temp sending unit a little (located in front of the carb), and bleed out any air that might be in the manifold after you refill it, then top off to the baffle again if necessary...also, do the suggestion about spraying it from a pistol grip on a garden hose for static running, works like a charm.
Once the cooling system has burped the air out, with normal use it should dump out any "excess" coolant from the expansion tank, then very rarely would/should you get any coolant overflow.
I always change the oil after the initial run-in, then at 500 or so miles, and normal change intervals thereafter. Other thoughts, Guys?
No suggestions on getting the burned sneaker goop off, but I guess it's better (for you and your friend) than having to get burned flesh off...
All in all, sounds like a successful run-in, with a minor aggravation on the lower hose. Keep us posted!

Your experience sounds almost exactly like the first time I fired-up my FE ten years ago. I too blew off the lower hose from the metal tube I had bent at the muffler shop. I fixed the problem by taking the tube off and taking it to a sheet metal shop that had a Bead Roller. They rolled a Bead on each end of the tube about one forth inch from each end, that way the clamp has something to grip against. I would not be concerned about the fluid level in the tank as it will find it's own level after the engine has been to temperature a few times. Then just make a mental note of where it should be when cold, (mine is about one forth inch below the baffle), and keep it topped off to that level in the future. I would however "bleed" the system at the temp sender as it seems there is always an air pocket there after the cooling system is filled.
Glad your first start was such a success, as you can see by other posts in this Forum others have had a somewhat more difficult experience.

Keith

You might try easy off oven cleaner for the remaining shoe goo.
My buddy uses that on the pipes on his Harley when shoes or stuff gets melted on it.

Scott

LOL God don't your love this site. Info galore....feels like we are never alone in this venture. Thanks again good info
Easyoff is what I will try in the future.

K. Wilson...funny huh same thing for you. I took the pipe to a muffler shop and had a nice bead welded around the ends of the pipe. This end that blew off was even double clamped at the time.

It was a pretty extreme situation to say the least. 110 to 115 C 1900 rpm and hit the key for immediate off. Yikes.....flashover

Interesting to see where it sits on a normal idle? The stories about not being able to handle 5-10 minutes at a light on a summer day or what have you.

So should I be shooting for a lesser mix of coolant 60/40 or 70/30
I had used about a 50/50, should read the label huh??
last place a guy looks..the instructions

I changed out the oil today. Went for the fancy motorcraft racing filter (FL1HP), much heavier than the other motorcraft one (FL1A) I had on for breakin. Initially I had dumped 8 liters in before stratup and today I saw only about 6.5 l. come out from the pan. Also u can count a little in the filter. So those oil lines and that remote cooler do account for about 1 - 1.5 liters. Oil didn't look too bad. Darker but still golden.

http://johnsmustang.com/Catalog/3228/


Tim

Tim: Congratulation on the project. Takes a lot of time to do it right, doesn't it? Pretty exciting when you light it up too! Try to locate a bead roller, it's the best way to do it (try race car fab shops). If not available have someone weld several "1/4" spots or raised bumps about 1/4" from each end of the coolant tube around the circumfrence of the tube. Then clamp the hose with the clamp inside the edge of the bumps. It effectively increases the diameter of the tube that the clamp would have to pass over before "blowing off".

Good luck

Rick