FL to OR to Buy a Bus

[Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Kentucky Dreaming

Glad to hear of your progress, pal. Can't believe those doofuses bundled the plug wires like that. Open invitation for cross-firing.

Setting ignition timing is easy. May take a bit of trial and error without a timing light, but can be done. I haven't seen mine in years. Haven't had anything with adjustable timing in prolly 15 years.

My Brother drove his RV about 50 miles home on a 5 gallon can of gas once. We had to stop and refill it twice. Junk in his tank clogged the new in-line filter within just a few miles. Glad none of the junk got to the carb I had just rebuilt on the picnic table. He had to drain a lot of stuff out of the tank when he got home.

Keep on keepin' on, man!!!!

It is worth getting a timing light, cheap enough anyway. A timing light and vacuum gauge go a long way to tuning these old engines.

[s2mikon]

And I would add a dwell meter. Find a pawn shop and shop those for old tech tools.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

I agree with both of you. I used all 3 of those tools back in the old days for every tune-up

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

It is worth getting a timing light, cheap enough anyway. A timing light and vacuum gauge go a long way to tuning these old engines.

Originally Posted by s2mikon

And I would add a dwell meter. Find a pawn shop and shop those for old tech tools.

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Yes Sir, Ronnie.
I did buy a timing light.
Thank you for writing vacuum guage. I'd have not thought of that on my own.


s2mikon,
What is a dwell meter?


I really do need to locate a manual (or three) for a Loadstar1600, v392 & T-36 transmission.


The technical help I've been receiving is priceless, but also the emotional support and positive words are making the journey much easier. I'd feel very alone without this community of love.

[Elliot Naess]

A dwell meter measures, in degrees of rotation, how long the breaker points are closed -- how long they "dwell" [remain] in the closed position. This is a more accurate way to measure the "points gap" than with the simpler feeler gauge. (The spark fires when the points open.)
On my first hot rod, in 1977 or so, I had a dwell meter right on the instrument panel.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by DeMac

--------------------


Yes Sir, Ronnie.
I did buy a timing light.
Thank you for writing vacuum guage. I'd have not thought of that on my own.


s2mikon,
What is a dwell meter?


I really do need to locate a manual (or three) for a Loadstar1600, v392 & T-36 transmission.


The technical help I've been receiving is priceless, but also the emotional support and positive words are making the journey much easier. I'd feel very alone without this community of love.

I have a full set of loadstar 392 Books.. its like 1600 pages i think.. let me know iof theres a few pages of an area you want and I can scan them and email them..



I took the cheaters way out when it came to points.. as soon as I noted all 8 cylinders fired i figured my pointsd were good enough for the ride home... when I get home I did a Pertronics conversion which converts the points system to electronic ignition (no more points)... later on i swapped the whole distributor out for a new one. my distributor was pretty worn out.. the biggest issue it had was the weights would stick.. getting under the cover on it, I did clean and use lithium grease on the weights and the little bushings associated with them.. that made my timing work better..



when I would have my timing light on it and rev the engine.. the mark would sit still then suddenly jump up.. then wouldnt come back down..



the mark should appear to move progressively with RPM when revving the engine up and down...

[DeMac]

I knew Christopher was a terrific guy, always helping folks. This man left his typical Tuesday afternoon to drive his truck to the place he atores his Loadstar, with an engine like mine, just so that we could walk through the timing together. (Best friend move, right there) Lots of back and forth with pictures, text after text, then more specific instructions. He really stuck in there with me. Amazingly, Christopher was able walk my ignorant butt through everything.




I made a video and uploaded it to YouTube
👉 youtube/@demac285
No talking, just 30 seconds of starting the motor, mashing the gas then quickly releasing it. The audio is great, I can hear the motor roar up & down. Good throttle response & sounds strong to me. I need to clean up my person and top off the rad. (Seems I have a water pump gasket drip.) Then I'll take it for a test drive. The carb is probably too rich. The exaust is a bit white with a gassy smell.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Sounds like things are getting better all the time.

Is the white smoke at idle or under more throttle?

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by Kentucky Dreaming

Sounds like things are getting better all the time.

Is the white smoke at idle or under more throttle?

Yes. Thats right. At idle and more with throttle.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Idle mixture adjustment may help a bit. May need to re-jet the carb. If you feel confident in making it to Nevada, drive it a while and see how it does on good gas and proper timing. Plugs could be a bit fouled after all the sh!t they've been through.

Just throwing ideas out. Never messed with an Edelbrock.

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Sounds great!!!

[cadillackid]

I did have to re-jet mine.. and re-rod it.. the other possibility im wodnering about is if his electric fuel pump is putting out too much pressure and causing blow by the needle valve and flooding the bowl...

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

I did have to re-jet mine.. and re-rod it.. the other possibility im wodnering about is if his electric fuel pump is putting out too much pressure and causing blow by the needle valve and flooding the bowl...

I also wonder if the fuel pump is putting out too much fuel.

[cadillackid]

A carb typically can’t take any more than about 6-8 PSI before fuel gets by the needle regardless of the float position . Result is even with mixture screws turned in all the way it still wants to run extremely rich..

The idle stop screw should be set to give you about 600 RPM. The engine rhythm sounds like a 300 beats per minute rhythm or 5 times per second .. really hard to describe engine rhythm without a tach. I had no luck with a cheap tach and the lower power ignition that breaker point system gives.. maybe there’s an app on your phone to help.. remember engine rhythm is half the speed of the actual crank RPM.

Anyway whole point is that if idle speed is set too high those idle mixture screws don’t affect anythjng . The jets and metering rods do .. of course I can’t find my notes on what jets and rods I used. Pretty sure I went a little leaner on the primaries .. it definitely wasn’t running rich enough to smoke or smell raw .. it just carboned up my plugs a little over time . The set in mine when I got it was the stock set and it did fine..

[Elliot Naess]

Edit to correct: Looking online now, I see 4 to 5 PSI, with a maximum of 6.5.
But what I remember is as low as 3.

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by Elliot Naess

Edit to correct: Looking online now, I see 4 to 5 PSI, with a maximum of 6.5.
But what I remember is as low as 3.

newly installed by me, I've since replaced the old fuel lines with new as well.


The pump which is installed now is rated at 8 psi Max. NAPA had three in 4-8 range. This is actually the second one I bought. This one looks the same as one which existsed before I arrived. The first pump I bought had an input/output fuel lne size that was too small. I returned it, unused & chose the one I have now. The third option was a diesel pump.


The old pump, as it was when I arrived


looking up towards the sky, from under the front of the block, the factory style mechanical pump is still in place

I can absolutely install another fuel pump, on the fly, once the correct match is in hand. Meanwhile. I'll start dialing in the idle screws, once I finish my appointment tomorrow morning.

Thank you, all. The information you provide. It is priceless. Fact of the matter is3, while I'm alone on the road, it's actually life altering. 🙏

[cadillackid]

elliot has it right... I pulled the guides on these... 4-5 minimum and 6.5 max..


you can keep the pump and put a regulator on it.. you'll wantto use a non return type..


pricey little bugger... I looked in my drawer of old but unused hotrod parts and dont have one of these... there might be a lower price one someplace..




this is one from the edelbrock book..

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-8190


here is the summit branded version.. ive had good luck with their parts.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g3032





of course make sure the fuel pump itself doesnt have a pressure screw on it.. I have a pump which does have an adjustment screw, yours might.. worth checking...

[s2mikon]

Here to help you set dwell amd rpm. I have no affiliation with this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/19646219093...Bk9SR_yTl9G3ZA

[DeMac]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

elliot has it right... I pulled the guides on these... 4-5 minimum and 6.5 max..


you can keep the pump and put a regulator on it.. you'll want to use a non return type..


pricey little bugger... I looked in my drawer of old but unused hotrod parts and dont have one of these... there might be a lower price one someplace..




this is one from the edelbrock book..

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/edl-8190


here is the summit branded version.. ive had good luck with their parts.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g3032





of course make sure the fuel pump itself doesnt have a pressure screw on it.. I have a pump which does have an adjustment screw, yours might.. worth checking...

Originally Posted by s2mikon

Here to help you set dwell amd rpm. I have no affiliation with this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/19646219093...Bk9SR_yTl9G3ZA

---‐-------------------------

Thank you.

The dwell/tach meter can be shipped to Larry's.



Im heading to Larry's around noon tomorrow, Google shows six & a half hours, I'll ne luck to make it in under eight.


I'll go back to the DMV at 8:30a to try to extend the 9/12 exp. date. I'll go early. Wait ..

NAPA is near the DMV. I'm definitely stopping there for a second 5gal fuel can, a spare fuel filter, gallon s of coolant.... I'll check their availability on the pressure regulator. Should I install the pressure regulator before the trip?



The Doc took most of my day but I'm feeling better, so I'm checking out tomorrow. I'm sure I'll have more adventures with Noah on the 365 mile shake down drive. Only another 3,097 miles to reach home.

[cadillackid]

if it continues to run on the road like its super rich then it could become an issue with washing the oil film off the cylinders.. usually not as big of a deal on gas engines as diesel but way too much gasoline can dilute the oil.. again not as big of a deal on gas motor but you just have to drive and get a feel for it..


did you try adjusting the mixture screws on the carb at all?


itsd entirely possible that when you get rolling down the road the fuel pressure drops just enough with the extra demand that things work nicely.. esp when it gets all warmed up..



the biggest thing is RPM.. these 392 do not like to spin.. ideally you keep it 3200 or below.. we dont know the rear gears unless the diff is stamped with a ratio then we can calculate you a rough estimate.. my oregon bus had a 6.50 rear in it so it was a slow rider. I can say that by the time you hit 3000 RPM the fan roar is the real deal.. you feel like a freight train coming down the track..



really the only way to know how it will act is to drive it..


there is a summit racing just east of reno in "sparks" its a store and a warehouse and being a racing / restoration / fix-up kind of place they have a bunch of stuff related to carb based systems... they dont stock OEM parts but fuel pumps, regulators, fuel line, aftermarket filters, etc.. its the place to go..


NAPA - the issue with them is they always want a year maker model and as we know this isnt original we are working on.. worth a shot? yeppers but there was no regulator on a 1975 Loadstar.. it used the mechanical pump off the side of the block.



you know my answer to "should i drive it?".. I just hopped in mine, drove and fixed things along the way.. if taking it on the highway fogs for mosquitos with eye burning fuel-smell exhaust then id probably re-think, otherwise id probably fill the coolant and hop in the seat...


you got this