I have sat here and watched three or four different videos on vacuum advance canisters you explained it better all these other videos. I am glad that I ran across yours thank you
Jeff, I agree with your approach. Too many RUclips shows (for entertainment) just want to see how fast they can get an engine started and then do burnouts...NOT GOOD for the engine and can lead to, as you said, catastrophic failure and will be more expensive to repair in the long run. Thanks for taking time to go over the proper way to inspect things! It's much more cost effective in the long run to check everything out in advance. Looking forward to more episodes on the ole 390 Fairlane!
I'm considering not even breaking into it as far as tuning at this point.. I'm honestly thinking about pulling it and working on it from that direction.
This great series, and it will be more educational than anything that you can do! These old cars and engines are still able to run and run good. On the exhaust, I have had a collapsed baffle in the muffler do this add some rodent poo and nest materials and that will do it. You can put it on the trailer and have a $100 dual 2.25s and 16 “ glass packs towards the front that can be used for resonators and put good muffler and tailpiece later. Flush the system out and do the radiator, you’ll be glad you did.
Definitely a direction we're looking at going in. I think what I'm going to do is take the exhaust system off for now. Just to make sure there's no obstructions.
I have a couple of guys who are trying to push me to rush through this and do it all-in-one video. But there's a lot of stuff to deal with and that would be like a 3 hour video.
We’ll Jeff, as usual, there’s always at least one naysayer or two out there… I’m good ☺️ with the cautious approach, though I am skipping ahead to the “Start me up” video, enough delayed satisfaction for one month !!! Keep ‘em coming..
At 16:50 you broke my heart lol. I have two bent rods I pulled out of #3 on this 68 F250390. This thing ran a couple years ago before I just got it and I now know the previous owner did not know this. Still going to drain everything and also see about taking the top end off to see if it needs machining. The endoscope on your home for $20 was brilliant. Great video. Keep it up.
@@AutoRestoMod yes I’m coming to find out that it may be expensive and waiting for help to see if it’s cosmetic as in getting the valves lubricated and moving again and hopefully no fluid or air leakswithout a full engine build. This seems to be a common proble with all FE engines and other engines as well but not sure why i can’t find videos on it. Is it the FE engine pink elephant in the room? Said the Newbie
You are welcome I agree there is no point in trying to tune something that's already busted.. When I had 90PSI on the 1st test I was pretty bummed.. But when I came up to 120 I'm having a little more hope.
There are plenty of youtube channels that would have done as you suggest and just start the engine without doing all the checks you are. But they are hacks that i wouldn't emulate.
There's still things that concern me that I probably won't be able to tune but I'm going to try. Like the lack of oiling through the push rods. I'm gonna try one more start up and see what it does before I actually try to turn it.
@@AutoRestoMod Easiest? way I can think of is to remove the distributor and spin the oil pump with a corded drill motor. That should pump oil through the push rods if anything will.
my FE had the same condition radiator. Lots of gunk, crunchy lower hose. I ended up replacing the radiator since it was significantly cheaper than having it rebuilt. Had trouble with the lower hose though, the ones from the parts stores were either not close enough in size to fit, or split. I eventually just used a universal.
For general information, engines that oil through the rocker shaft like this one can have congealed/hardened oil in the shaft itself, restricting flow to the rockers. This a maybe if you are cranking the engine and little or no oil appears up top.
My 2 cents. Pull the engine put in new rings and bearings. An engine that old the rings will fall off in 3 or 4 pieces. Save the ol FE before you put a gouge in the cylinder and wreck the block.
That wiring harness with 2 plugs on the firewall looks exactly like the ones on my 63 Fairlane. I used a 64.5 Mustang harness from NPD. Only difference was the Fairlane has 4 headlights and Mustang had 2. I just made some nice jumpers. Maybe you'll do a cool flatbed shoptruck build someday? I've been seriously looking at 300 straight 6's and 5 speeds.
Agreed but I think it's probably more an issue of fuel drop into the cylinders.. When the compression came up that told me that it might just have been some junk either on a valve or something down inside of the bore.
Wrenching on these rigs that have sat a long time getting old & tiring? Just do what everybody else does and throw an LS in it, or you can go old school and drop a 350 in it. Or do the tried and true 5.0 from the 90’s with the notorious shift cable clip that breaks and you burn out overdrive in 5 seconds.
Not if you know how to sense the problem. With cable connector broken and more than light throttle, AOD will slip badly in 3rd & O/D. As long as one backs off the throttle at point of slippage, they be fine. Of course repair should be made ASAP. With a Transgo shift kit, the TV cable is mostly used for kick down & shift point. I raced one behind a Trick Flow headed 5.0 for nine years. Finally kicked the bottom end out of 5.0, trans was still shifting fine.
Sorry I was having a bad day on other levels and it leaked over into the video. Yo. I'm normally pretty upbeat about these things but as I'm getting older it's harder to do some of them.
@@AutoRestoMod no worries. I understand. Really. I go from manic swings of loving working on these old cars to paying money to watch them get crushed as a laugh uncontrollably in the fetal position. You’ve had a lot of change lately and glad to see you coming out on the other side. 👍🏻
Hi Jeff. Have you thought about back flushing the radiator, heater matrix and engine block to get the crud out then running the engine with one of the coolant flush chemicals available?
I have. But I'm also more concerned about the oiling issue I see on the top end of the engine than anything else anything else. That is caused me to pause and why I haven't posted the 2nd video on tuning.
tune up question -- my 64 fastback with 390 4 bbl Autolite carb -- when engine is cold I have to crank on it about 30/40 seconds before it will crank up. Once it's warmed up it will crank immediately but shut it off for 4 hours and the gas seems to disappear out of carb. I have the 1" water cooled spacer under the carb. Engine runs cool. It has a Mikes Carb repair kit in it (by far the best I've found in 65 years of doing this stuff.) Any suggestions?
Some of this can boil down to fuel fuel that we have available to us now.. I find the same problem in mine. Not real sure what we can do about the issue since I think it really does have to do with the quality of gas. I use the fuel pump that has the reservoir on it so that it doesn't have to pull all the way from the tank. I'm thinking about doing that and I'm pretty much anything that has that fuel pump available.
These video are getting more and more frustrating, actually do something. Put the video out when you get all the parts or make due with some temp set ups. You give good info but I am wondering if anything actually gets done. Don't put a video out just to put a video out, I understand being careful so hell be careful and do it right and put the video out when all the steps are done. Hook up a mechanical gauge under the hood and monitor the oil pressure on it, they are cheap and easy same on temp. Hell run the garden hose through the engine while running it will flush it too. Also good luck on radiator rebuilds the EPA has killed that, I have two nice ones that need a good bath and 1 need a small leak soldered but nobody does it. The price of the original repos are a small fortune compared to the better aluminum ones so all my classics are getting aluminum. OK rant over.
I struggle with whether to whether to do a 45 minute or an hour video that will crush my numbers on RUclips due to watch time or to put it into parts like we do which makes RUclips happy. Obviously you're one of those guys who has to have everything done all at once. I get it. But I don't think I'm going to do that, sorry.
I think you missed all the advice given out on the areas he covered and hope you understand his point on RUclips. If you find a better 390 start to finish in less than an hour then post it as a reply. Lol ok my rant reply over.
You know the episode is good when it just flies by. Once again great education.. Cant wait for the next one..
Thank you Anthony I appreciate it
If taking some time now will save major headaches later . I say take the time. It can make life so much easier later.
Agreed!
Thank-you for all your hard work
Thanks I appreciate that!
Thanks for the video, good information.
Thank you.
Not me either! I am with you on that. FEs come back to life amazingly well!
For sure
Jeff Thanks for taking me on the journey
It definitely has been a journey lol
I have sat here and watched three or four different videos on vacuum advance canisters you explained it better all these other videos. I am glad that I ran across yours thank you
Jeff, I agree with your approach. Too many RUclips shows (for entertainment) just want to see how fast they can get an engine started and then do burnouts...NOT GOOD for the engine and can lead to, as you said, catastrophic failure and will be more expensive to repair in the long run. Thanks for taking time to go over the proper way to inspect things! It's much more cost effective in the long run to check everything out in advance. Looking forward to more episodes on the ole 390 Fairlane!
I'm considering not even breaking into it as far as tuning at this point.. I'm honestly thinking about pulling it and working on it from that direction.
This great series, and it will be more educational than anything that you can do! These old cars and engines are still able to run and run good. On the exhaust, I have had a collapsed baffle in the muffler do this add some rodent poo and nest materials and that will do it. You can put it on the trailer and have a $100 dual 2.25s and 16 “ glass packs towards the front that can be used for resonators and put good muffler and tailpiece later. Flush the system out and do the radiator, you’ll be glad you did.
Definitely a direction we're looking at going in. I think what I'm going to do is take the exhaust system off for now. Just to make sure there's no obstructions.
Totally understand your careful approach on the 390!
I have a couple of guys who are trying to push me to rush through this and do it all-in-one video. But there's a lot of stuff to deal with and that would be like a 3 hour video.
Great Video and Info … thx for taking us on this journey 😎💪🏼 - love my 390 !! 😎😍🤘🏼
You are very welcome.
Norm Abrams would be proud of your woodworking skills.........
Normal Abrams would shoot me dead for my woodworking skills. Lol
Please take as long as you like on this 390! I really enjoy FE videos! Mahalo!
Mahalo my friend
You are being a great teacher!
Thank you
We’ll Jeff, as usual, there’s always at least one naysayer or two out there… I’m good ☺️ with the cautious approach, though I am skipping ahead to the “Start me up” video, enough delayed satisfaction for one month !!! Keep ‘em coming..
We'll try I'm still not convinced I should start this engine and run it run it.
At 16:50 you broke my heart lol. I have two bent rods I pulled out of #3 on this 68 F250390. This thing ran a couple years ago before I just got it and I now know the previous owner did not know this. Still going to drain everything and also see about taking the top end off to see if it needs machining. The endoscope on your home for $20 was brilliant. Great video. Keep it up.
Thanks. I hate that you have a couple of bent rods. On big block FEs that can get really expensive.
@@AutoRestoMod yes I’m coming to find out that it may be expensive and waiting for help to see if it’s cosmetic as in getting the valves lubricated and moving again and hopefully no fluid or air leakswithout a full engine build. This seems to be a common proble with all FE engines and other engines as well but not sure why i can’t find videos on it. Is it the FE engine pink elephant in the room? Said the Newbie
Great video learning a lot thanks keep up the great work
Thanks for the kind words we sure will.
Very interesting and educational! Thanks!
You are welcome.
Thank you for doing a compression test before a tune-up. A sick engine can't be tuned.
You are welcome I agree there is no point in trying to tune something that's already busted.. When I had 90PSI on the 1st test I was pretty bummed.. But when I came up to 120 I'm having a little more hope.
And unhook the heater core and block it off. That is a good radiator. My 65 looked like that and it came out great!
Normally I would but this car doesn't even have a heater box on it.
There are plenty of youtube channels that would have done as you suggest and just start the engine without doing all the checks you are. But they are hacks that i wouldn't emulate.
There's still things that concern me that I probably won't be able to tune but I'm going to try. Like the lack of oiling through the push rods. I'm gonna try one more start up and see what it does before I actually try to turn it.
@@AutoRestoMod Easiest? way I can think of is to remove the distributor and spin the oil pump with a corded drill motor. That should pump oil through the push rods if anything will.
my FE had the same condition radiator. Lots of gunk, crunchy lower hose. I ended up replacing the radiator since it was significantly cheaper than having it rebuilt. Had trouble with the lower hose though, the ones from the parts stores were either not close enough in size to fit, or split. I eventually just used a universal.
Have a part store hose we'll see.
For general information, engines that oil through the rocker shaft like this one can have congealed/hardened oil in the shaft itself, restricting flow to the rockers. This a maybe if you are cranking the engine and little or no oil appears up top.
Yeah I'm worried about that situation I may have to pull the rockers off and check the tips as well as the tubes and the push rods.
Y
@@fenatic7484 Well, that was enlightening.
Oil doesn't come up through the lifters on a FE. Oil is fed from the block to the head and the rocker shaft. Great video.
Good to know thanks for the kind words.
My 2 cents. Pull the engine put in new rings and bearings. An engine that old the rings will fall off in 3 or 4 pieces. Save the ol FE before you put a gouge in the cylinder and wreck the block.
Honestly I am leaning in that direction.
That wiring harness with 2 plugs on the firewall looks exactly like the ones on my 63 Fairlane. I used a 64.5 Mustang harness from NPD. Only difference was the Fairlane has 4 headlights and Mustang had 2. I just made some nice jumpers. Maybe you'll do a cool flatbed shoptruck build someday? I've been seriously looking at 300 straight 6's and 5 speeds.
Thanks for the heads up on that wiring!
On a 390 #4 is the usual cylinder to burn a valve.
Agreed but I think it's probably more an issue of fuel drop into the cylinders.. When the compression came up that told me that it might just have been some junk either on a valve or something down inside of the bore.
Wrenching on these rigs that have sat a long time getting old & tiring? Just do what everybody else does and throw an LS in it, or you can go old school and drop a 350 in it. Or do the tried and true 5.0 from the 90’s with the notorious shift cable clip that breaks and you burn out overdrive in 5 seconds.
Not if you know how to sense the problem. With cable connector broken and more than light throttle, AOD will slip badly in 3rd & O/D. As long as one backs off the throttle at point of slippage, they be fine. Of course repair should be made ASAP. With a Transgo shift kit, the TV cable is mostly used for kick down & shift point. I raced one behind a Trick Flow headed 5.0 for nine years. Finally kicked the bottom end out of 5.0, trans was still shifting fine.
Sorry I was having a bad day on other levels and it leaked over into the video. Yo. I'm normally pretty upbeat about these things but as I'm getting older it's harder to do some of them.
@@AutoRestoMod no worries. I understand. Really. I go from manic swings of loving working on these old cars to paying money to watch them get crushed as a laugh uncontrollably in the fetal position. You’ve had a lot of change lately and glad to see you coming out on the other side. 👍🏻
@@AutoRestoMod Jus wait till you acculimate another 15 trips around our major luminary.
Hi Jeff. Have you thought about back flushing the radiator, heater matrix and engine block to get the crud out then running the engine with one of the coolant flush chemicals available?
I have. But I'm also more concerned about the oiling issue I see on the top end of the engine than anything else anything else. That is caused me to pause and why I haven't posted the 2nd video on tuning.
tune up question -- my 64 fastback with 390 4 bbl Autolite carb -- when engine is cold I have to crank on it about 30/40 seconds before it will crank up. Once it's warmed up it will crank immediately but shut it off for 4 hours and the gas seems to disappear out of carb. I have the 1" water cooled spacer under the carb. Engine runs cool. It has a Mikes Carb repair kit in it (by far the best I've found in 65 years of doing this stuff.) Any suggestions?
Some of this can boil down to fuel fuel that we have available to us now.. I find the same problem in mine. Not real sure what we can do about the issue since I think it really does have to do with the quality of gas. I use the fuel pump that has the reservoir on it so that it doesn't have to pull all the way from the tank. I'm thinking about doing that and I'm pretty much anything that has that fuel pump available.
I love 390's just not the one currently fighting me
Probably a head problem.
Amen my brother.
first thing to do on these old engines is to put SEAFOAM in it. One can in the crank , 2 in the tank
Okie dokie
Have you ever noticed that the ford and Chevy have the same firing order? Chevy starts at cylinder 5 on a ford and follows the same pattern.
No one hadn't noticed that thanks
Yep, makes em easy to remember.
Hows the lube oil
Get a set of mechanical gages. The factory gages were marginal back then.
We have sourced a set of mechanical gauges from Harbor Freight.
I find it a little sus that you “built” that plug holder. Looks like something you might have stolen from Cracker Barrel to me.
OK you caught me it was over by the big sparkly lamp with all the glitter on it.
fix it, fix it, FIX the fender
I'm going to replace, replace, replace that Fender. But I may also repair that one as well lol
These video are getting more and more frustrating, actually do something. Put the video out when you get all the parts or make due with some temp set ups. You give good info but I am wondering if anything actually gets done. Don't put a video out just to put a video out, I understand being careful so hell be careful and do it right and put the video out when all the steps are done. Hook up a mechanical gauge under the hood and monitor the oil pressure on it, they are cheap and easy same on temp. Hell run the garden hose through the engine while running it will flush it too. Also good luck on radiator rebuilds the EPA has killed that, I have two nice ones that need a good bath and 1 need a small leak soldered but nobody does it. The price of the original repos are a small fortune compared to the better aluminum ones so all my classics are getting aluminum. OK rant over.
I struggle with whether to whether to do a 45 minute or an hour video that will crush my numbers on RUclips due to watch time or to put it into parts like we do which makes RUclips happy. Obviously you're one of those guys who has to have everything done all at once. I get it. But I don't think I'm going to do that, sorry.
I think you missed all the advice given out on the areas he covered and hope you understand his point on RUclips. If you find a better 390 start to finish in less than an hour then post it as a reply. Lol ok my rant reply over.