A New Intake Manifold and Carb
Isabelle use to stall through intersections and really didn't have a lot of ooomph. Now, I don't want tons of oomph, but the combination had me thinking of my Dad's '76 Lincoln Town Car. He ordered it special. As kids he would show us another one like his and say that he had one just like it on order. The problem was that it would stall through intersections. This went on for a year. It was kind of scary, I imagine, having all four kids and Mom in a car and have it stall when going across an intersection. I remember it happening once. Eventually he had a "Wickham Special" done on it. The engine was completely gone through. All I remember was that it had a high-rise manifold and a four barrel Holley. It ran really well after that. I decided that Isabelle might like to have a new manifold and carb. A carburetor that could be tuned to her tastes. I found a 2101 Edelbrock manifold for $35 and a 1406 carburetor for $65. With shipping I had a complete setup for Isabelle at less than $130. I found a rebuild kit for $20 and got some .092 metering jets. I took the secondaries that were in there, moved them to the primaries, and put the .092 jets in the secondaries. Here you can see the HEI distributor is 90 degrees off. I have no idea how I was able to get it to feel correct in that position. There is a notch in the end of the distributor shaft that makes it so it can only go in at 180 degree increments correctly. Also, you can see the 1406 carb and intake manifold:
I struggled for awhile with this. One of the first mistakes was that the manifold wouldn't tighten down enough with the hex head bolts, so I got some allen head bolts. Combined with some RTV sealer I was able to get the intake manifold to seal. Now, I believe that Isabelle has always leaked a bit of water through the intake manifold. I don't see any steam any more, or dripping water when I start her, so I'm glad I dug into that a bit. The second problem I had was that this was a spread bore manifold and I had a square bore carb:
For twenty bucks you can get a converter plate, Mr. Gasket number 1932, that will convert square bore to spread bore:
One of the holes in the manifold is stripped, so I used two inch studs to attach the carburetor:
I ended up getting some longer studs, as these were just a wee bit too short.
Isabelle could get around with the 1406, but she wasn't happy. She backfired under load and didn't have much power. She could barely get up a hill. My test is I push the bumper up against the retaining wall and see if she stalls out when I accelerate. She would bog and backfire (well, bad, single cough) under load. I also didn't like the electric choke on the 1406. I'm going to warm her up, anyway, before I take her anywhere, and I just prefer a manual choke on a truck, I suppose, it reminds me of my old '55 GMC. I splurged and got a new 1404 with a manual choke. They really are pretty reasonable considering they are a new carb. Here is a picture:
I adjusted the distributor advance as much as I could with the allen wrench, but she still backfired a bit on acceleration. I'm going to replace it. Not a big deal, as I paid less than forty bucks for the old one. It will be nice to have a spare carb and distributor in the tool box. I orderd a number 141681 - GM Performance Parts Licensed HEI Distributor with Coil and Yellow Cap, but Isabelle is running pretty well now. I might mess with the springs, weights, and center plate, but I want to see what a GMPP HEI does first, rather than mess with it more. I might also put a washer or something to limit the advance if I have to. I have a suspicion that the 1406 with the new jets will work almost as good as the 1404. Even before I worked on the advance, though, she sounded better, so I'm happy with the 1404. I really don't need the extra CFM with my 307. As a bit of an aside here, if I had paid attention to the vacuum advance first, I might still have the original manifold and two barrel. Of course, my mind is tainted by the memories of the Wickham Special. My that Lincoln ran good after that. More on the distributor when it arrives. [The number 141681 - GM Performance Parts Licensed HEI works fabulously. March, 2009]
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