84 Grand Wagoneer Revival

[devildog80]

WOOHOO....4 bbl intake & carb on and running. Turned key on to fill bowls via electric fuel pump, 3 full strokes on pedal to purge carb, turned the key and fired right off. About a minute of slight jiggly in the idle then smoothed down to about 1200 rpm. Adjusted throw on throttle cable, as it was just a tad tight, and idle came right down to 650 rpm. Electric choke was flawless. Checked everything over and all we found was a small pool of antifreeze on PS front of intake. Forgot to tighten up CTO port there, that I am not using....yet, tightened up and done.
Test drive and has just a little hiccup off the light normal driving, transmission linkage needs adjusted just a tic as it wont kick down at WOT, but otherwise drove out nice. Of course more responsive than the 2 bbl. Now we are running, next is DAVIS HEI and new wires.
Thanks Mongo228 for all the help

Before with 2 bbl

20230930_141044 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

Now with 4 bbl - lost a bunch of excess emissions stuff so cleaner look. Will get dressed up more later.

20240305_184309 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

More pics of items around the carb.

20240304_191239 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_155201 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_155234 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_155216 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_155250 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175102 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175117 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175131 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175150 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175205 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175220 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175241 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175254 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

20240305_175306 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

[devildog80]

Last weekend-
Success.....think I have found the magic on Edelbrock clone tuning. Float adjustment seems to be about 95%. As the clone has sightglass on each bowl, heard they should be showing fuel about 1/2 way up on the glass. Mine were barely reaching the bottom of glass. Pulled top off the carb, as the Edelbrock carbs suspend the floats from the top plate, and bench adjusted them. Three times total to get it correct.
Initially adjusted between top plate and float @ 7/16th inch. Test drive ....better, but still a bit of stumble from traffic stop. Back to the shop, pulled top, but used second adjustment method. Hold plate with floats hanging down, as it would be mounted on the carb, and set at 15/16th inch. Assembled and fuel level in sight glass now about 2/3rd showing. Now very responsive without stutter, and so far from mash to WOT is smooth. Probably need a couple small adjustments, but right now feels good. Test driving today to verify carb, and adjustment on trans kick down linkage.

[devildog80]

Today-
Still had a little stutter off stop. Ran by the guys place that sold me the 2131 Edelbrock intake, and he suggested larger jet size. Went from the stock build .098 to the .106 and stutter gone. He did say again the Edelbrock is NOT an off road carb, but most of my planned driving is road miles, so good with that. Just nice to have it driving smooth now......except for the transmission to carb linkage. Asked him about that and he advised to set the top linkage per instruction, then might need to adjust down on the transmission too, to get it dialed in. He did say Edelbrock sells the linkage kit for this too, but described is pretty much what I fabbed together. Shifts from stop to 3rd gear by 15 mph, so a bit boggy, but horsepower compensates for any high gear failings quite nicely. Probably affect MPG, so getting that figured out.

[devildog80]

Ok, swapped in the larger battery from the F250, by placing a 1X6 board under it, and ratchet hold down for now.

While doing this, I saw the heater hose running up against the battery, and wondering if this could be causing the hard start issue when warm. Maybe not the starter getting too warm, but the battery?
20240321_155533 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr
20240321_155546 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

Trimmed off about 8 inches so the hose would not contact the battery, and allow for cooling. Will test it this week to see if that was the problem.
20240321_163006 by Scott Weckerly, on Flickr

[devildog80]

Replaced hot wire from solenoid to starter, let truck warm up to temp, and actually started again.....twice. Not the really hard crank/no start like it was doing, but a slight pause, but then popped off. Hope the new cable was the magic smoke needed to solve that problem.

Update
Went out on 3-4 quick errands, and truck started after each time. I think the magic smoke has been found, to resolve the hot start issue

[devildog80]

Temps pushing high 90's here, as Mother Nature gets ready to jump into triple digits, and hot/hard start issue raised its ugly head at me again. Thought it was licked, but not so. Back to more fine tuning, and get the issue resolved for good, so I can move onto more fixin' on other parts of the truck. I see a high torque starter in the waggies future.

Also realized today, after topping off gas tank a couple days ago, my odometer froze. I do not relish pulling the cluster again, as plastic in it is like powder, but have a couple replacements to build up and use. Time to put one together, just in case its needed.