TexasJohn55

Remove the vacuum hose from the fuel pressure regulator and check for gas, that would be from ruptured diaphram and would suck fuel into the intake. Lots of other possibilities. PS: you could also check fuel pressure while you are there, it should raise and lower with the vacuum. Put a vacuum guage on the hose to regulator, see what it idles on then shut it down and start it back up and make note of where it starts on guage and how long it takes to reach previous maximum at idle.

The sixes of that era were 194, 230 and 250. Hard to tell apart. The full size in '66 introduced the 250, '67 in smaller cars. If I recall correctly, the cylinder head design was later changed to what they call "integral intake" which was different from earlier years which had the intake and exhaust sandwiched and bolted together, the '66 would have been that earlier style. If they are not assembled correctly, you could have problems sealing up everything.

Well, I thought it was time for an update on the running lean code P0171. If you recall, I had mentioned that the honeycomb screen in the intake was damaged. There was a lot of comments about the MAF sensor and also maybe intake leaks. Came time for another inspection and the code was showing up regularly. I removed the intake boot and sure enough, the screen was held in with a thin snapring. I removed the screen and noticed that the damage was directly inline with the channel to the MAF sensor. I straightened the honeycomb as best I could and rotated the screen so the damage was away from the MAF channel. Long story short, that fixed it. The code has not reset since appx 2 mos ago. Thank you all for your input, I have learned alot from this. PS: those MAF sensors are not cheap so I decided mine might work after fixing the cause of the upset airstream to the MAF.

Intake leaks at 1 and 6, that would explain the pulsing intake vacuum readings at idle and the dry plugs. May be worth pulling the manifold.

Fuel pumps are inefficient at pumping air. It takes awhile even with a good pump if the line to the tank was completely empty. I had this issue after sitting a long time, fuel had dripped out a tiny pinhole in the steel line, had to pressurize the tank to push fuel up to the engine. Haven't had to do that lately. If it cranks up ok now and runs good, maybe it is ok. Otherwise just tee in and check the fuel pressure at the carb then run the line into a bucket and measure flow by the shop manual at cranking speed with coil disabled.

You can find references by googling "1R-1L-3R-3L-4R-4L-2R-2L firing order". I don't know how to search images.

I would suggest that EVERYONE resize photos to less than 200 KB, it takes up less space. I am on dial-up and won't even click on a photo that is larger unless I desperately want to see it, which is rare. A pic sized at 1 MB takes over 5 minutes to download for viewing with dial-up. I miss out looking at alot of pics for that reason. That top pic that gwells just posted at 190kb took 50 sec to load full size view. I am not willing to pay the prices demanded for broadband internet so I just live with it.

Read it s l o w e r Mike. PS: I wasn't sure until I read post 5. I was kinda reading between the lines because I had suspected a problem with my drive clutch lip seal being hard and not sealing when cold. Mine seemed to improve after warming up.

You need to do some pressure checks. It sounds like the front pump is weak and the rear pump is supplying enough pressure to engage the drive clutch. The clutch engages and holds at road speed.

Hook up appropriate voltage to appropriate terminal, connect the other terminal with a wire with condensor and ground the condensor body with the coil. Ground the coil body for good measure and leave it connected.Ground the wire with condensor momentarily and release. If the coil jumps spark from the coil wire to ground, then it works. Seems confusing but think of grounding the condensor wire with the coil neg wire at the same time and releasing as doing the job of the points. You could use a hose clamp to clamp the condensor body to the coil body with the neg wire. The coil won't fire until you touch the coil neg wire with condensor to the coil body or neg wire from battery. I don't know if yours is 6v neg ground or pos ground, should not make a difference for testing. As for resistance specs, sorry I don't know. But for testing purposes, points will not fire the coil without a condensor hooked up. If it does, it will be a VERY weak spark. Hope this helps, hopefully someone can explain it more clearly.

Yep, had a Pontiac do that the first time I pulled a travel trailer on the Interstate, about 30 miles out in hot weather, rad cooler could not keep up. Added an auxillary cooler in front of the radiator and cured that, no harm done. It would dump 1 qt each time. My '55 dynaflow cooler mounted at the transmission was completely blocked with rust and scale, found that when I swapped transmission, had not driven car since I bought it. I nearly destroyed the cooler beating on it but finally got all the scale out and good coolant flow thru it. If it still leaks after cooling off and refilling, cooler probably won't fix that. The seal may have blown out or failed.

The harmonic balancer, having the outer member bonded to the inner member and being round is not my first choice for jacking. The oil pan has a relatively flat sump and a 2x6 which spans both sides will spread out the forces and safely lift the engine. PS; A bottle jack has a very small post contact area and can split a soft board. The area needs to be broader when using timber/boards to lift. A floor jack typically has a 3-4" cup or pad and works better using boards. I don't use bottle jacks except on HARD surfaces and then, carefully.

Rolling On Floor Laughing My --- Off.

Hoorah! .........Thanks Mike. It says alot about the car and the man when he can drive it cross country and enjoy life with his son.

Likely order of prominence: Wires, plugs and coil. Just replaced one coil on wifes car for same thing. I got lucky, after several weeks, having already replaced the wires and plugs(plugs needed), knowing it was a coil but which one, it finally set a code for missfire #2 cyl. Replaced that coil and back to normal again.

Heat builds AT THE BAD CONNECTION. The fuse holder is the problem. I have seen inline 30 amp fuse holders burn up completely and the fuse was still good. It could be corrosion or even one solder joint at the fuse contact spade. Once, I had my 10 amp battery charger get one of the battery lead wires cut. I skinned it back and twisted the two ends back together. Thereafter, when I used the charger, the connection got too hot to touch. After twisting and soldering the connection, no more heat.

Some dealers like to use bonded titles. They pay a bonding fee and put whatever they want on the title. My title has my engine # on it because he chose it instead of the vin. I think if the origin or title info is not readily available, they use the engine because it is not likely to be traced back if the car was stolen or imported without documentation. After 1 or 2 yrs, you have the option to renew bonding or let it ride. You would have to do a title search with the DOT using the vin to determine is there is a lien or stolen reported. Good luck.

Well, cheers to everyone who suggested there was something loose up front. By the way, the bell housing has to be removed to remove the clutch and flywheel.Wasn't that step one? Correct me if I am wrong please.

Maybe your navigator took her for a spin.

"We got here after 11 hours of driving approximately 700 miles" LEADFOOT! That's pretty good time in a '55!.

My '55 Special book (264) says to lower idle to 350 rpm to adjust timing and then reset to 450 rpm. It also has a timing advance chart for mechanical and vacuum advance at all rpms, Neat.

Maybe it is a bad case of "cowl shake", after all it is a convertible. Have you checked the crank thrust ???

Al, Please do not try to flush and clean topside with gasoline or mix, if you must clean it, use only a shop vac to pick up any crust while dislodging it. Flushing with gasoline or any cleaner that dries quickly takes all the protective oil film off everything. If it gets in any bearings for the cam and crank, you can easily fail the bearings on startup. Pulling the oil pan and doing a clean up is almost risk free as long as you don't spray any cleaner up inside. Remember, without a full flow oil filter, any crust and sludge that is broken loose and falls into oil pan will be picked up and sucked into the oil pump and goes straight to the bearings. You can cause alot of damage in a short time. A bypass filter will not save it from destruction. As for cooling system flushing, plain water is good. If it has a heater, you can stick a garden hose in each one with radiator drain plug out and fill system then start it up with hose turned on full. Alternate between the hoses to reverse flow until it runs clear. You CANNOT get all the rust, scale and sediment out by flushing. The best way is to remove all the core plugs and dig it out first and stick a nozzle in there to flush it out. After new plugs are put in then you can do a running flush with drain and radiator cap open. To get maximum flow and cleaning, you need to remove thermostat while flushing.

If you have eliminated the clutch and motor mounts then you don't have a problem. Have you measured the crankshaft end play/thrust? Have you put it against a tree and tried to smoothly engage clutch? Bernie wasn't just having fun with you, it is a good way to check it.Be sure to have someone watch the engine to see if it flops like a fish.

Kinda sounds like a u-joint failure, maybe in the tail housing. Check for cracked tailshaft housing or damage there causing massive leak.