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Discussion starter · #23 ·
Beats the living daylights out of "rebuilding my tired 302", no? Congrats, well done, you have had quite a week. What's on tap for next week?

Never give up, never quit.

alan
Thanks,
Next the distributor will go to Eric for the full treatment. :D I cant hardly wait to button this thing back up and go drive it. :yes: Should be much more fun to drive now.

I droped the oil pan while I was at it and everything looks like like it should. Looks to have the correct rods, 4 bolt main block with the windage tray, correct 7708 balancer, correct pulleys, correct dated water pump etc...
The only thing I can't confirm is the pistons since I haven't pulled the heads.
 
Nick;
Looks like you're narrowing down the issues. Eric will get that distributor ready to go for you. I did my own, but hey I found a distributor machine too. Its pretty tough to tune the dizzy on the car. Lots of adjustments vs one time on the dizzy machine. Eric what spring kit do you use typically for a 480 dist? Silver medium springs from a accell kit?

Todd
 
"Looks like I am not nuts after all The father in law of the original owner muast have had 1 too many cold ones the day he put the timing chain on. "

I figure the old man detuned it ta keep his Daughter SAFE is what happened!

He, He!!

I dated a girl way back then whose Dad wouldn't let her ride w/ me, only to find out later her Dad was the biggest womanizer in Macon, MO back then!!

And she was the niece of my long gone Blacksmith Buddy's wife!!

At our last HS Class Reunion, I found out that she was married to my Classmate and I pulled her aside and told her just how much her Aunt and Uncle meant to me after Dad died and she knew full well.

Time the sucker spot-on and if you want to, throw a degree wheel and dial gage on her to make sure she's timed right and GO!!

pdq67
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
Update...

I buttoned everything up on Tuesday evening and fired it back up, The car sounds great much more reponsive and almost 8" of vacumn now. The bad news is I had one heck of an oil leak with the front seal between the pan and timing chain cover.:mad: Oh and I did replace the thin seal that was in it with the same thin seal when it went back together. :)

Last night I went back out there and droped the front of the pan and put a bead of silicone between the seal and the pan hoping this would stop the leak. I waited untill and hour ago to fire it back up as I wanted it completly dry before I tried it again. Well just my luck, it still has a small drip.:mad::mad: I have yet to drive the car as I dont want an oily mess under the car but it sure sounds good.

New plan is to wait untill this weekend and pull the pan back loose and go with another new gasket set. I am thinking maybe even jack up the engine this time so I can get the pan completly off and go with a one pice gasket.
I am kind of undesided on that as of yet.

we are supposed to get rain / snow again tonight or tomorrow so I wont be able to drive it till next week anyway. :(

So as of now I caint really say what it will run like exactly but again it sure sounds good.

onovakind67,

Oh and by the way you hit the compression right on the nose. after warming it up it has right at 145-150 in all the cyclinders I checked. I honestly dont know why I got almost 160 that night I had it apart unless in my joy of finding the timing chain problem I missread the gauge.:confused: I did do a leakdown on the driver side and they averaged about 12-15% not great but I have seen much worse. :yes:

:beers:
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
Well, would you believe nobody around town this evening has a Felpro set of oil pan gaskets for a 302.:sad: Autozone & Checker auto had some off brands but I hate to use anything but Felpro.

I would really like to get this finished up tomorrow or Sunday. Have any of you had any luck with those off brand gaskets? I hate to have to do this again for the third time if I use them and it leaks again.

Thanks,
 
Discussion starter · #31 ·
Update...

I was able to find a set of Felpro gaskets and I dropped and resealed the pan. Looks to have solved the oil leak. While I was at it, I went ahead and installed the pertronix kit I bought in my original 480 distributer. The weather was pretty nice so I dug it and drove it.

All I can say is WOW what a differance. The car runs really nice and was still pulling strong when I lifted @ 6800 rpm. :yes:

It finally feels like a Z/28 and not some old tired grocery getter.;)

Now for the bad news well kinda;) I dug out my 66 GT Mustang and drove it for kind of a comparison. The car has a fairly stout 289 4-speed with just 3.25 gears. I am still sorry to say I wont be grudge racing my stang with the Z quite yet. :eek: The 289 has a small little ford motorsport cam, 351 Windsor heads and pulls like gang busters from about 1500 to 6000rpm. The little car is pretty quick. Years ago when my Dad owned it I took down more than one big block Goat or Chevelle with this thing as the other cars were going up in smoke while this little thing was flat gone. :yes:

My goal is to get this Z/28 to pull as strong as the 289 does. I know they are apples and oranges as the combos are completely differant. My Z is for the most part 100% stock. and the mustang has Try Y headers with a nice free flowing exhaust among the other things.

I will not pull the manifolds and I do really like my repro transverse exhaust. I know these are probably killing the performance but I love the stock look. I still plan to send my distributer off to Eric to be rebuilt & recurved which should hopefully help some. Any other ideas or recommendations on what I should do to this thing? The one stipulation is, it has to retain all the factory components.

As always, thanks to all for your help
:beers:
 
Try Thorleys with the transverse muffler. It you get the timing right you just might be surprised. I can't believe that a 302 can't walk away from a 289. ;)
 
Thorley TriY and the 17104K transverse from Flowmaster should do the trick. Remember now the 289 will come on strong but you need some deep gears to make the 302 sing. Try 4.56 or 4.88.
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
Try Thorleys with the transverse muffler. It you get the timing right you just might be surprised. I can't believe that a 302 can't walk away from a 289. ;)
Gary,

You know I am a little suprized also. You know it's all about the total combo and in all fairness the the Mustang is dialed in pretty darn good. my Dad was the Ford guy and I was always the chevy guy. He tried to build this car to run against my 68 SS/RS 396. It was built with 12.5 -1's ported 69 351 windor heads, the motorsprt cam ported Fb4 intake full MSD ignition 650 DP holley etc... so it's not your run of the mill 289, thats kind of where my apples to oranges comment came from.:D I inherited this car a 2 years ago but am very framilar with it as he had owned it since 78 or so. It is and will be the only Blue oval in my garage but it is a very special car to me for ovious reasons.

I have just in the last couple of weeks started to try and work out some of teh issues with the Z/28 and with the help of a great bunch of guys here on TC, the car is worlds better that is has been for the last 10 years. :yes::hurray: I feel like if I stay with it I will get it worked out and running like a 69 Z/28 should.:D

Thanks again
 
Discussion starter · #35 ·
Update...

I bought a Moroso curve kit for like 8.00 so I thought I would try and curve it myself. I disassembeled it and cleaned and regreased the shaft and instaled the brass bushing it came with & tried one of the lightest springs and one of the medium springs. The car ran great but I couldn't get it to idle right as the cetrifical advance was fluctuating(sp) at idle.

Next I removed the 1 light spring and replaced it with the other medium spring and was able to get the idle problem squared away but the bronze bushing that came with the kit was giving it 30 degrees centrifical advance and I was only able to 10 initial for a total of 40. The car ran good but it acted like it wanted more intial advance.

So.. here is what I did next, I pulled the distributor back out and installed the red bushing I had left from the MSD distributor I put in my 68 years ago. I had no idea if it would even work or not but I figured what the hell, I would give it a try. I put every thing back together and set initial at 18 per Garys recomendation and with that red MSD bushing it has 20 centrifical for a total of 38. The car sounds awesome!!:yes: Very very responsive. Unfortunatly it started to rain so I haven't driven it yet. :mad:

Can I ask what springs you all are running? do you have any issues with the advance coming in to early causing idle problems? since I was by myself and just using a dail back timming light right now I dont know what rpm I am getting full advance. I do still need to replace the vacumn advance with the echlin. The one that is on there now doesn't even seem work at idle.

With all the advice you all have given the car has truly made a 180. It is really starting to run strong.:yes:
Thank you
:beers:
 
Good for you Nick. Eric's help on the carb was a big part I think. I am not sure what springs I have since I had the distributor was curved by a guy with a Sun machine. I have 36* total. You may want to check 16* initial out. It is crazy all the initial this 30-30 wants. I kind of stumbled on it when I was working out the tune of my engine. Conventional wisdom seems wrong for this original cam. I have lousy quench too, according to the real engine builders on this site. Drive it in better weather then come back and tell us how lousy the 302 is on the street.;)

I want to do UDHarold's quick and dirty method in post #5 to check the cam installation also. He says an engine will want a lot of initial if the cam is retarded. He just has me wondering. I will be gone out of town most of this week so I can hardly wait to log in Thursday evening.
 
Discussion starter · #38 ·
Gary,

Thanks, as soon as I get a chance I willl take it back out and see how it runs. If needed I can drop back to 16 initial to get the 36 total. Your right, Erics help with the carb was a major help. :yes: I would like to have him restore the carb a little later down the line as soon as I have a little extra cash in my car budget. :)


Todd,

Thanks, those are what I ended up with. I could tell right away by the feel that the week springs wern't going to cut it that is why I thought I might stagger them. It sounded really good till I tried to drive then the idle was all over the place.:eek: With both medium silver springs the idle problem was cured.

Did you use the Moroso weights of the stock ones? Also what bushing did you use and where did you get it? Do you have yours set up with 18* centrifical as Gary suggested?

I will go to Napa this week and get the Echlin vacumn advance and try it as well.

I am not sure what rpm the advance was coming in at since I dont have a tach on my light. but if yours is at 1300 rpm with the same springs I am running it can't be to far off from there.

Thanks again,
:beers:
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
Well I stoped off at the Napa store this morning to pick up the echlin VC 1810. The guy told me he would have to order it from the factory and it would be here in a week. I paid him and he said he would call when it gets here. 45 mins later he called me abd said it is discontiued and is no longer available.:mad:

Is there any others out there that work the same as the echlin VC 1810? Does anyone know the specs on the eclin so maybe I can cross referance it to another manufactor? any other ideas?

Thanks Again
 
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