Jus purchased a 1-owner '79 Pony. Rusty Red with black interior. It is not a beauty contest winner, but everything is there and in working order for a nice restore.

I live in Alabama and we do not have smog checks so the first thing to go when I changed out battery cables this AM was the Smog Pump delete. I am also not satisfied with the current carb setup. Not sure what Motorcraft model '79 had, but it is def tired and I would like to look into swapping my intake and carb and getting rid of those yards or vacuum lines it has. What is a good combo intake/cardb for a 2.3L?

As far as all those vacuum lines go... if I am not mistaken... all that really needs to stay functional are the pull-offs going to the carb and the main line coming off the block for the distributor? Any advice here is needed before I delete too much

Also... what is a good little header for the 2.3? I am gonna redo the entire exhaust ASAP because it is missing a tailpipe already.

Many thanks!
Nate

Will snap some pics when I  get finished with maintenance. New battery, cables, NGK plugs, Motorcraft wires, cap/rotor, 1-piece Fel-Pro valve cover gasket, replace all hoses, flush radiator with a inline flush kit, fresh antifreeze, new Wix oil filter, 10/40 Castrol GTX High Mileage oil, voltage regulator.

Fresh brakes all around is the next project. Needs new rubber and fresh exhaust also. So... busy for awhile. Will post up after I get her washed and all the old carpet out.

Another quick question... What drop-in front seats work from other vehicles? Mustang II's, turbo T'birds, etc.?

On the carb, some have an electric solenoid for the vent and it's on the top front of the carb, a bigger hose, it should lead across driver side to under the fenderwell inner where the charcoal canister is. All that can come off and block the vent, I went inside it to remove the rubber poppet valve (about $2K in hospital charges there for me at the time!!!!) to then vent the carb internally and more externally IIRC. Look close for a possible power valve external vacuum hose, most likely does not have it but if you remove that if present the car will not run under power because the power valve will not work. Most '79-'80s don't have it, only the ones that were about to go to full feedback carb had the set up. You need one vacuum line off either the full time or spark ported tube on carb to provide the distributor vacuum advance. It often goes to a ported vacuum switch mounted low on the engine block or the outer driver part of the intake. You can plug that off simply running the vacuum line from carb to distributor. Any rubber line coming from fuel tank to the charcoal canister is a vent of sorts, if plugged the tank may need it for venting especially if the fuel cap is not a two way vented one. Later fuel caps vent to vacuum only and not pressure for emissions, no telling what's on the car presently. If the heating controls are all cable you can pretty much drop all other lines, it may be convenient to keep the vacuum set up to the air cleaner intake that controls preheat air for cold weather operation, that can make the engine run better when stone cold in winter. The flipside is it then heats the intake air up more, you give up a slight amount of power there, the cold air intake thing.

If automatic trans you'll need a vacuum line to the modulator on it or trans won't shift right.

Just so you know, emissions equipment is federally not state regulated, the fines can come from there too but who's watching eh? Just a FYI.

Where at in Alabama? I've been daily driving my '80 Pinto since October in Auburn/Opelika.

I run the vac advance directly from the vac port at the back of the intake. Haven't gotten done stripping out lines yet, just doing a little at a time. I dumped the smog pump (which didn't have a belt anyway) cuz I figure with roughly 80 horsepower, every little bit of weight off the front helps.

My stock carb is in decent shape, but I'm still looking at swapping to a 350-cfm Holley 2 barrel on the stock manifold.

Seats are a good question. I'm thinking of going with either Fox Mustang or Mitsubishi 3000GT seats. Have to get a day off to run to the Pull-A-Part in Montgomery to see what they have. I'll probably get another head and swap in a roller cam at the yard before checkout....es pecially if I can grab a set of 95-up rockers too.

I have the Ranger header to go on it when I decide to cut up the system on the car.... $20 at the Pull-A-Part.

Tim D.

Check out the Holley 4421. Using that on a 2.3 now, well when we finish the new build on the mini stock engine.