Aaron65

Guy, Let's see pics of that old boat!

You could also try Bob's Automobilia...they seem to have more reasonable prices on things, and I've never had any problems with them...

I think we're missing the fact that all his cylinders were at 60 psi. That's pretty low. I think something else is going on here. When I bought my '53, number 8 was at 0 psi. I hooked compressed air to it and listened to the carb, breather, and exhaust. It was hissing out the exhaust, and I had a bad valve (very bad, in the shape of an oval, and cracked!). The other cylinders weren't much better. I replaced all the valves, and now I'm at 105 psi cold, 110-120 hot across the board. Not perfect, but OK considering I didn't touch the lower end. You should hook some compressed air to a cylinder at top dead center and listen to see where it's coming from, because at 60psi, that motor probably isn't going to run too well. Maybe the starter isn't spinning fast enough, but make sure to pull all your plugs and charge that battery. When I leave all the plugs in and check compression, my values drop to under 100 psi, so cranking speed is an issue. Good luck!!!

Awesome! I own many hundred ads, I even have a room in my house displaying all my toys and ads. I'm a real dork I guess...in addition to my full garage, it's a wonder I'm married! <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If it's a Dynaflow, then Dexron/Mercon III is fine.

AMEN to that!

I'll get right on that...I'll bet the one under the carb has never been off the car! Thanks for the tip!

I always wondered what that was for...my other breathers are clear because I can occasionally see vapors coming from them, but I haven't checked that one! I'll give it a look--thanks! Anything else I need to know about it?

One more thing--where is the breather on the driver's side???? I thought the only breathers were the draft tube and the valve cover breather...

Bill-Glad it's not just mine...I've had two pumps and I figured it couldn't be a fluke! As far as plugs go, I may need to jet up a bit more even, since we have 10% ethanol in our gas and I had to lower the float a bit to stop the car from heat soaking. Straight 8--I kind of figured that the blowby thing may have something to do with it...the pump's right down by the draft tube. The breather and draft tube are clear...the engine's got over 100,000 on it, but has good, even compression, so there'll be some blowby for awhile I'm thinking! I thought about installing a PCV kind of like what Dave was saying, but there doesn't seem to be a really good way of plumbing into the intake manifold without pulling everything apart, which I don't want to do again, since I've already had the head off this thing once...Guess I may have to live with the leaky fuel pump!

Hey all, I rebuilt the fuel pump on my 263...worked great but leaked oil out the weep hole. So I bought a rebuilt fuel pump, and it took longer, but now it too leaks oil out the weep hole...anybody else have an oily fuel pump or is it just me. Also, what plugs are you running in your straight 8s??? I'm running AC R45 plugs, but I'm on the fence on running R45S plugs for the extra length. I shut the car down at cruise and the porcelain is white on the plugs, even though I jetted up .002 recently. Vacuum at idle is 18.5 in. Timing is good... Any ideas?

I wrestled with mine on my straight 8...I finally got a few threads engaged on both bolts, then drew them in and everything went together fine...but that's with a straight 8! Make sure the pump is right first...

Oh yeah, the little clips can be found in almost any carb kit...if you have a carb kit sitting around from your Mustang, it may have a little wire clip that will work...thanks for the memory jog Carl!

I'm foggy about it right now, but does it have a little tang that holds it in place after the rod is placed in there?

Justin, I think you and I have a lot in common carwise! Don't bother soaking the vacuum switch, just spray it with cleaner...You don't need to remove the jets to rebuild the carb, you can just clean them out. If you do need to remove the main metering jets, find a bolt that fits inside the jet boss, and grind a slot that the jet will fit into...you've made yourself a jet wrench. The only reason I know that is because I've had to jet mine up a few notches. Good luck...nice cars!

That motor sounds fine to me! Drive it and enjoy it...will a few miles on these things, there's going to be a little smoke out the draft tube here and there...the more you drive it, the better it'll run...

Thank you all for the nice comments! Old Guy, haven't forgot talking to you...I'll let you know when I get around to pulling a front shock--hopefully you have a few sitting around!

I'm for keeping it on the road...it looks like a great fun driver...just keep it going, fix it when it needs it!

And here's the Skylark...

Here are my girls...I've had the '53 for a little over a year, and it has new valves and lifters, a rebuilt carb, straightened intake and exhaust manifolds, new heat riser, rebuilt master cylinder (it had never been apart), boiled radiator, new this and that that has added up to $! But it's pretty much my dream car so it's worth it. It needs paint and front shocks...the front shocks are coming this winter, the paint won't happen for a few years at least, til my '65 Mustang gets done getting redone (and I haven't even taken it apart yet, but I have a bunch of new sheetmetal in my basement). The '65 Skylark I've had for 3 and a half years...It's a great car! Another car I've always liked and found a great deal on. Like everything else I own it could use paint, as it has chips and lacquer checking. But it's a factory 300 4 barrel and still only has 88,000 miles, after I've put 17,000 on! I love the two tone with the white roof, plus it's my favorite color on a car--dark blue. It's just how I'd have ordered it, except I'd like a 4 speed! Hope you all like em!

Unclefogey, I have a bad feeling you'll still be in the Black Soot club...but, you won't be in the haze of oil from the draft tube in your rearview mirror when somebody is tailgating you at night with their headlights on club! That has to be a good club to be in!

My '53 has left a soot mark behind it in the garage...

3Jakes, that's good to know! I haven't had a problem yet, but who knows!

Are you sure the smoke when starting hot isn't black? Mine (after a lot of tinkering) still puffs a small cloud of black smoke from the carb flooding the motor on a hot restart. It seems to be fairly common with the old inline motors...

Try Bob's Automobilia, CARS, inc., buickfarm.com...I've ordered from all of them and they are all good to work with.