1988 chassis

[chimp koose]

kool

[Crosley.In.AZ]

very nice induction  setup.

[kb426]

O&S at it's finest. I changed the bolts out in the manifold. I used needle nose pliers and a real small 5/16" box end to tighten the center 4. Obviously, I hadn't spent enough time on this, yet. I swapped the injectors back to the outside. There wasn't an easy way to clear the distributor with the front fuel line. I used a set of ev1 injectors because of there size. I had adapters to change to ev6 on the injectors. I had what was left of the harness on the 99 explorer engine that went into the 32 in the shed. It was eec v with the ev1 connectors. I dissected the harness and installed it on the injectors. I have made the connections to change from sequential to batch fire for this eec iv computer. I'm using the small cap adapter that I made some time ago and have the tps mounted. I have to make 2 adapters for the fuel lines and the regulator next. Also on the list is the knock sensor. The original is mounted on the rear of the block. Sun exposure caused it to give up it's life. I didn't find one of those for any decent price. Seems that 1988 might be obsolete. They make one for newer v6's.  The original is 1/2 thread and the new one is 12 mm. I'm going to take a piece of round shaft and machine an adapter to take care of that. That leaves the idle air control off the list. For my purposes at this time, that isn't necessary.

[kb426]

The fuel line fittings arrived so it's time to go to work. The original knock sensor became the donor for the new one. I stuck the old unit in the lathe and machined it flat to facilitate welding a 12mm. nut onto the base. With the little research I did, the sensor is a microphone for the engine, sensing vibrations which in turn causes the little disc sensor inside to change the voltage readout. I went about connection the wiring harness and fuel apparatus. 1st attempt, it doesn't start right up. I prime it and it fires and dies. I open the butterflys some and it fires up. HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM! It's running rough. I mess with the fuel regulator and it changes it some but doesn't fix the problem. I shut it off and check the tps. The injectors are made for a GM tps. I thought a tps was a tps. Not so. The Ford has a voltage wire that the sensor reads to monitor voltage fluctuations. The GM doesn't do it the same at least on this unit. As the tps rotates, it changes the voltage going in and out. The 1st time I had it running, it had full voltage at idle and reduced as throttle opening increased. Lets just say it's running rough. I swapped wires going to the tps and now the reference signal decrease as throttle increase. The Ford doesn't do that. I'm going to do some research about this but the best remedy maybe to machine an adapter to use the Ford tps. Are we having fun now? LOL

[kb426]

More testing today. I believe I solved the tps problem. I changed out the injectors for a slightly smaller set just in case that was a problem. I installed a different gauge on the regulator because the other one acted wrong. Started it up and it still had problems. I adjusted the fuel regulator and it didn't make a real difference. I unplugged the spout connector and set the timing with a light. With the spout unplugged, the TFI module is bypassed. It ran way better. I have an almost new TFI module left over from the 32 spares. I installed it. Same thing. Runs ok with the spout disconnected. As soon as the TFI and the associated circuit takes over, it starts miss-firing. I swapped computers. Same result. Time for more thinking. The regulator is suspect but I don't have anything to exchange for it. All the rest of the parts were on the truck intake and the engine ran as it should. I'm going to find something to replace the regulator before I try it again.

[idrivejunk]

Engine sounds!     Nice going, KB.

[kb426]

I tried again today. More testing, same result. I connected the breakout box and checked voltages. I didn't find anything.  Won't run with the TFI connected. More thinking ahead.

[kb426]

Ladies and Gentlemen! Over here at amazingly O&S, I have found the problem. This morning I remembered that when I had the engine running stock, I was using a different distributor. I swapped that out this am with the old tfi module. Same result. I installed the new spare again. Same result only better as in the tfi wasn't perfect.    

I decided that the only way to determine what had happened was to reinstall the stock intake. So I did. Same result. This left only one item to change. My small cap on the distributor. Dilemma solved. The geometry on the stock cap will work fine in a conventional ignition circumstance as when the spout is disconnected. The EFI controller was not able to control the timing for some reason. Large cap installed, everything is back to normal. This leaves me with no simple way to have the efi control the timing with the 8 stack. There is no room for the large cap which is why I built the adapter to begin with. More thinking on down the road.

[enjenjo]

would something like this work with the TFI module?  Holley Sniper 565-301BK

[kb426]

I don't think so Frank. I could adapt it to a remote adapter for the TFI but I have no idea how different the signals are from the hall effect sensors. My 1st thought if I decide to pursue this is an offset distributor head. Same as the offset drives in drag racing with big blowers. I'm going to have to decide where I'm going with this. If I build a hot rod with an exposed engine, this manifold would be nice. If I have to hide it under the hood, I'm not as excited. I'm going to find out what all is wrong with the 78 and decide if this engine needs to go in it. I like learning and I learned something. Years ago, some of the comp eliminator racers were swapping crank trigger units around and found that the size of the crank pulley was important. That was way down on my list of what I thought was wrong. I wasn't going to remove the 8 stack until I exhausted my available stack of resources. That happened today. LOL

[chimp koose]

the offset distributor drive would look good with the stacks . Some of those systems used a gilmer belt to drive the offset drive if I remember . I think there was one for a cam driven distributor that was offset so you could still drive a fuel pump off the front of the cam for bbc and sbc using a gilmer belt for the dist.That type of drive might be fun to whittle out on your mill. Those stacks are awesome!

[kb426]

I disassembled the cylinder head I picked up from the salvage yard yesterday. I don't see anything that looks bad. It's off to the vat and then get painted if it ever warms up again.

[kb426]

This is the fix I have in mind for using the 88 fuel tank without the external pump. The pic shows a standard mustang gt pump next to the truck transfer pump. The oem pump is 8psi and would work with a carb. The gt pump is the standard 40psi unit with plenty of capacity for 250 hp. I believe the truck engine is rated at 185 hp.

[chimp koose]

Why not , you seem to have had good luck with mustang parts in the past  

[kb426]

^^^
At least you didn't tell me to metalflake it. LOL