Author Topic: 73 Wagon Project - Brownie (Read 99524 times)

dave1987 · « **Reply #360 on:** March 20, 2012, 04:38:10 PM »

I just got a set of premium plug wires from NAPA and the autolite 45s (copper core). If it doesn't help then I will double check the timing and valve clearances.

Will test compression and vacuum as well.

dave1987 · « **Reply #361 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:14:12 PM »

I replaced the wires with a better set and put Autolite 45's in, which helped a little bit, but the sputtering is still there.

I double checked and reset the timing today and everything is spot on. Advancing the timing makes it worse and retarding the timing seems to help a bit.

I adjusted the fuel mixture to make it bit richer and raised the curb idle a bit, and it isn't anything excessive, and doesn't want to die when idling now, but I still know something is off somewhere.

A vacuum test measured out at 15 hg with a slightly shaky needle movement, which makes me think the valves might be running a bit loose.

I can't get a compression test yet, since my gauge hose is messed up and won't thread into the plug hole.

dave1987 · « **Reply #362 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:21:31 PM »

Here are some pictures of the head work done. Sorry about the quality, they were taken using my phone, so not the greatest quality.

1) Valves (lapped) and springs with retainers on top stacked up. (keepers on the sides)

2) Followers, lifters, and keepers all clean.

3) Top of head cleaned up

4) Bottom of head cleaned up and valve seats lapped (were done with the valves)

dave1987 · « **Reply #363 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:24:41 PM »

More shots of the head being assembled. I used Sta Lube engine assembly lube (with moly graphite) on all of the lobes, followers, and lifters.

5) Valves with springs in place.

6) Camshaft and lifters in place

7) Left side of head completely reassembled

8 ) Right side of head completely reassembled

dave1987 · « **Reply #364 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:32:35 PM »

When the head was done and I could continue with the less time consuming and "easier" tasks, I moved back to the motor.

1) Four piece oil pan gasket for the 2.0. Cork gaskets for the sides and rubber for the front and rear. I use Permatex Ultra Black gasket maker sealant.

2) Crank seal/timing cover and the auxillary shaft seal cover with new seals in place.

3) I installed the timing/seal covers with a light coating of Permatex Ultra Black before sticking it to the block. These go on before the oil pan does.

4) Timing/seal covers in place.

dave1987 · « **Reply #365 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:38:02 PM »

Once that was done I could start putting the oil pan on, and then finally drop the car to the ground again. For future reference, be sure that if you complete motor work with the block still in the car, and do what I did by removing the steering rack to gain clearance to remove the pan past the crank, be sure that you put the steering rack at the same time as the oil pan. If not, you will have to pull the rack completely off the car and slide it into place from the driver side.

1) Here is the amount of clearance under the motor with the steering rack dropped.

2) Repainted oil pan in place!

3) What you can see of it from above!

4) I figured that while I was painting the rest of the blue stuff, I might as well do a repaint of the air cleaner too!

dave1987 · « **Reply #366 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:42:07 PM »

5) And the charcoal canister......

6) Then the steering rack went into place, so I could drop the car off the stands and work on reassembling the motor from a more comfortable height.

With the car back on the ground I could start to reassemble the front of the motor and really start putting her back together again!

1) Head gasket and distributor in place

2) Original FoMoCo water pump back in place (still running strong!)

dave1987 · « **Reply #367 on:** March 25, 2012, 10:46:52 PM »

Next up was to put the head on and install the thermostat, time the motor and put the belt on, install the intake and exhaust manifolds, and put the valve cover and timing covers back on.

1) Head installed.

2) Timing belt and thermostat in place.

3) Manifolds on!

4) Valve and timing cover on. Shiney is GOOD!

dave1987 · « **Reply #368 on:** March 25, 2012, 11:02:04 PM »

Last thing I had to do before reassembling was to secure the carburetor studs. When I first got the car the carb was secured with the nut like it should be, but it had another nut on top of it to lock eachother in place because the mounting studs would unscrew from the intake when removing the carb. I used some high strength thread locker on the threads and tightened them into the intake. So far so good!

I waited about a week to take these pictures of the motor fully reassembled with everything in place, because I wanted to replace the sticker on the valve cleaner with a repro one. I think it looks great!

1) Carburetor studs in place

2) Sticker difference between the old one (top) and new repop one (bottom)

3) Everything in place and motor running

4) Air cleaner assembly, and new again!

RSM · « **Reply #369 on:** March 26, 2012, 01:11:33 AM »

Hey that's looking really nice there Dave

bbobcat75 · « **Reply #370 on:** March 26, 2012, 06:33:39 PM »

man that is one clean cool set up!!!

dave1987 · « **Reply #371 on:** March 26, 2012, 11:33:42 PM »

Thanks you guys! You are keeping the modivation alive!

I think I figured it out! I swapped the primary and secondary jets so the larger is on the primary now. I also switched the idle jets for the same setup. Took it for a test drive and the get up and go is there now and it isn't sputtering at idle now. i havent yet adjusted the fuel air or the distributed to match up perfect but I think it is cured!

While I had the carb apart I blew everything out and did get a bit of stuff out of the primary tube and top jet, which also may have been at fault.

bbobcat75 · « **Reply #372 on:** March 28, 2012, 12:54:29 PM »

did that to my 78 wagon 2.3 and wow what a diff.
i cant wait till i get the 79 turbo set up on it, it wont be a rocket ship but more fun to drive on the street and to local car shows and cruises

dave1987 · « **Reply #373 on:** March 30, 2012, 10:14:49 PM »

Brownie got her shift bezel restored with a new seal!

dave1987 · « **Reply #374 on:** April 28, 2012, 11:30:00 PM »

Brownie got a sound system installed this month. Nothing extravagant when it comes to a "performance" sound system, as the 6.5" and 6x9" speakers are no where near high end, but they are much better than the single 6.5" I had temporarily in the dash running off the cassette deck (previously the AM radio), that would crackle and cut out.

The deck and speakers are Pioneer. They all came as a set that I purchased from Walmart for $99.99, which wasn't a bad deal at all considering a low end similar deck alone would have cost me $129.99 or more. The sub and amp added up to the same price I paid for the deck and speakers. The only other things I had to get was an amplifier wiring kit (ebay @ $15.00) and the sub enclosure (would have built it but I don't have the time to right now) which was $29.99.

Total system cost - $244.97, and I can transplant it to another car in the future if need be.

I didn't cut up any of the stock panels or radio bezel, I have spares and luckily I had a spare metal radio bezel the same color as Brownie's dash from a bobcat I pulled apart a few years back. Kick panels are some I had in storage with a few broken door jam tabs, but no bad cracks, so I painted them and cut holes for the 6.5" speakers.

So, everything is reversible should I ever decide to sell the car and not loose much of the car's value!

For the rear 6x9 enclosures, I got the idea from Pintopower. He did this box design for his 77 wagon a few years back and I really liked how it is removable, yet has some style to it and simple to assemble. While mine varies in design a bit to accommodate the subwoofer box and the finish on mine is stained and lacquered, the concept is the same. You can see Pintopower's thread here:

http://www.fordpinto.com/your-project/wagon-speaker-box/msg127267/?topicseen#new

All of my speaker, remote gain, and amp remote power wires are routed under the driver's door edge, and the amp's 8 gauge power wire is routed under the passenger side door edge, with a 40 or 50 amp (I cannot remember at the moment) AGU fuse in a water tight fuse holder located on the outside of the firewall above the blower motor hole.

The amp is secured to the back of the subwoofer box to make things more "portable" if I need the cargo space. Nothing special here, a "Walmart Special" amp, manufactured by BOSS Audio, rated at 600W but an actual RMS rating of 150W (half of what my 78's Rockford Fosgate is).

The sub is also nothing special, but 2" more cone surface than my 78's sub (also a Sony Xplode), which is a Sony Xplode XS-GTX100LW 10" Subwoofer. The box needs some matting in it, as it sounds a little odd and empty right now. Maybe later down the road when I "care" about it.

On to the pictures!

1) The deck (fits nice, black matches the 2-tone interior, don't like the red lighting though)

2) Passenger side kick panel speaker

3) Driver side kick panel speaker

4) Amp remote gain adjustment knob

dave1987 · « **Reply #375 on:** April 28, 2012, 11:37:00 PM »

The box I built for the 6x9's isn't completely finished yet. I need to put the terminal cups on the back of each 6x9 enclosure which will make installation and remove of the assembly easier. I will do that the next time I am at my parent's house and have access to the Rotozip and will post pictures of it afterwards. Other than that this is what it will look like.

1) The amp and back of box(s) (BOSS letters glow blue when powered on, but I'll never see it! lol)

2) The 6x9 enclosure assembly and 10" sub in the middle (perfect fit and not planned!

)

3) Covered with the black cargo cover. The sub is taller than I like, but who would expect a 10" sub in a Pinto Station Wagon?

lol

johnbigman2011 · « **Reply #376 on:** April 29, 2012, 01:14:09 AM »

Dave, very clean install... You know some of them radios have a color changer for the display built in.

dave1987 · « **Reply #377 on:** May 05, 2012, 03:02:59 AM »

I checked on this radio, I had one similar in the 78 for a week, and it doesn't have the color changing option since it's a base model of the radio. It's okay though, just going to take some getting used to from the blue LED lighting in the 78 to the red LED lighting in the wagon!

Tonight I straightened the hood and the fenders/headlight doors to line up, so the hood doesn't extend past the fenders anymore. I also managed to push some of the driver side dent out. It will require a lot of bondo to fill it in without replacing the panel, but it is do-able to make it look decent again. Then I need to get some paint matched up so I can spruce up that fender a bit and put the replacement headlight door on.

I also messed with the wiring on the passenger side to figure out why I had to hit the fender to get the headlight to come on. I replaced the ground terminals and scuffed the contact areas, but it didn't help any. It turns out the lamp is bad, which is odd because the one I had on the car previously did the same thing. I'm going to replace them with some Sylvania SilverStar lamps like the 78 has and call it good after that.

Here are some pictures of the finished box. I got the rear connection terminals in tonight, and the banana plugs on the wiring.

The third pic of the plugs on the wiring isn't really what it's like right now, I shorted the longer wire to match after taking the picture.

r4pinto · « **Reply #378 on:** May 14, 2012, 11:45:14 AM »

Quote from: dave1987 on March 30, 2012, 10:14:49 PM

Brownie got her shift bezel restored with a new seal!

Dave I replaced mine years ago but sitting out in the sun has played havoc on mine & I can't seem to remember where I got it. Where did you get yours at?

dave1987 · « **Reply #379 on:** May 15, 2012, 04:01:55 PM »

http://www.sscenterprises.com/

Scott hasn't added it to the Pinto Parts section, but I emailed him pictures and verification that it does fit the Pinto bezel perfectly as an NOS one would.

dave1987 · « **Reply #380 on:** June 07, 2012, 02:46:18 AM »

Now that I have the garage just outside, I can work on brownie whenever I want to!

Taking care of the little problems and projects now. I replaced the extension housing nudging on the transmission last week and yesterday i replaced the burned blower control switch.

I just tighened down the annoying exhaust clamp at the transmission and the manifold to downpipe bolts. Now installing a temperature gauge, the wiped delay and wiring up the cargo lamp.

It's going to be so nice to drive her this summer!

dave1987 · « **Reply #381 on:** October 21, 2012, 02:14:29 PM »

It's been awhile!

Brownie is running strong, been driving her for a week or so, then switch back to the 78 Sedan, no issues to speak of except for an oil leak from somewhere. I cannot seem to find it, but it's somewhere on the driver side of the motor, around the distributor and the oil filter. I initially thought it was the oil filter (and still do to some point) since tightening it down slowed it, but I am afraid to tighten it to much!

I just picked up an oil cooler from an early model explorer to replace the A/C condenser I am using as a tranny cooler at the moment.

I have a question about it though.

The reasoning behind swapping out the cooler is that I suspect the condenser being to restrictive and not allowing enough fluid to return to the transmission, possibly the reason for the C4's tail shaft bushing being wiped out (lack of lube in the tail shaft).

I noticed that on the explorer, the cooler that i pulled originally is connected in series with the radiator cooler. Will it be okay just to run the cooler by itself without going through the radiator cooler first?

The reason I don't use the radiator cooler is because it is filled with crud from the original clutches going out. Instead of yanking apart the cooling system and having the entire radiator rodded and cleaned (not necessary at the moment, no leaks or cooling issues), I just plugged off the transmission cooling ports.

So, will the transmission be okay running this explorer cooler as a stand alone and not in series?

blupinto · « **Reply #382 on:** October 22, 2012, 06:29:32 PM »

Dave, I'm so happy you decided to keep Brownie! You are so handy with that 2.0 you should take a trip to Cali and take care of mine. lol

Seriously, you've done wonders with that lil' wagon.

r4pinto · « **Reply #383 on:** November 26, 2012, 09:00:53 PM »

Dave, I dunno if anyone answered your question but no that wouldn't be a problem at all. People have switched to a seperate cooler all the time for one reason or another & it was actually suggested to me when my first transmission went out on the 77.

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Author Topic: 73 Wagon Project - Brownie (Read 99524 times)

RSM