Ready to liftoff!! She’s all set for a first start

[Isaiah Estrada]

It’s been nearly THREE years since I bought the New Yorker. January 13, 2020 was the day I put my down payment on it. I thought I’d be able to just find the 727 tranny it was missing and make the engine run with a tuneup and some TLC.

Fast forward to now and the car is completely torn apart, but now slowly coming back together. After much self doubt, I finally went ahead and started to wire the engine up.

With help from the generous folks here on FCBO and referring to my FSM & YT, I was able to get things going. First things first, I found TDC in order to drop the distributor in. I wired up the starter so we could bump the engine till we found TDC on the compression stroke. Both valves closed, made sure the 0 mark on my damper matched up with the timing marks on the valve cover. All good!

Forgot to add, I primed the engine around this time too with my rod and drill. I verified that I had oil pressure and saw it coming out of the rockers. From there, I re-installed the oil pump drive gear and made sure it was parallel with the camshaft. Once I set the distributor in, my rotor wasn’t pointing at where 1 should be per the factory wiring diagram. Skipped one tooth and it was spot on.

Once I got the rotor pointing at 1 ^, I twisted the distributor body till the points were just about to open. From there I tightened it down with the distributor hold down. After that, I popped the cap on and added the spark plug wires where they should go!

Not the prettiest looking but it’ll get the job done for now! I have R&M wire looms to make this look clean.

Added a mechanical temp gauge, seen here plugged into where the heater hose pipe would be.

Added fuel hoses from the fuel pump to the carb and from the fuel pump to the gas can we will be using to light her off! (Only there ain’t no gas yet…)

I took a wire from the battery to one side of the ballast resistor, and from the other side of the resistor to the positive side of the coil. Hooked the distributor wire to the negative side. I have a remote start switch to crank the engine over. I’m hoping now that when we hook the battery up and spray some fuel down the carb, she’ll light off almost instantly!!! So excited to be this close to seeing her run. She’s come a long ways from how she was when I got her.

 

[Gerald Morris]

BRAVO Isaiah! I too like running capillary tube temp gauges, and busted out a couple weeks ago on a new one, purchased from Summit. To avoid plugging essential ports on my water pump housing, I modified a Dorman thermostat housing by drilling and tapping it for a temp gauge. You have to do this to a Dorman 902-3012, shown below from AutoZone:

That wart sticking out from the down tube perfectly suits a thermostat! Here's how it looks on my venerable 383:

It runs for $10-15, depending on where you buy it. A little care about how certain thermostats are turned under this arrangement should be exercised, as one doesn't want the thermostat bulb interfering with the opening or closing of the thermostat. It's never happened to me, but it could, if I got sloppy or bought a thermostat with an absurdly big bulb.

You certainly prettied up that engine! I hope it sounds and runs as nice as it looks.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Looking good - however, be VERY CAREFUL running a rubber fuel line between the fuel pump and the carb, even for a test run or a break in - it should be a hard line to avoid any sources of heat or friction (like a hot exhaust manifold and drive belts). A hot exhaust manifold can light off a rubber fuel line before you know it.

The ONLY rubber should be the two very short bits that connect the short hard line from the pump to the fuel filter, and the fuel filter to the longer hard line that goes to the carb.

Do it right and be safe.

Look at the photo of my 440 - you can see the bottom of the fuel pump, and the lines and the rubber pieces and the filter.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Looking good - however, be VERY CAREFUL running a rubber fuel line between the fuel pump and the carb, even for a test run or a break in - it should be a hard line to avoid any sources of heat or friction (like a hot exhaust manifold and drive belts). A hot exhaust manifold can light off a rubber fuel line before you know it.

The ONLY rubber should be the two very short bits that connect the short hard line from the pump to the fuel filter, and the fuel filter to the longer hard line that goes to the carb.

Do it right and be safe.

Look at the photo of my 440 - you can see the bottom of the fuel pump, and the lines and the rubber pieces and the filter.

One can use flexible steel mesh encased hose from the carb, but YES, AVOID RUBBER OVER THE INTAKE MANIFOLD BY ALL MEANS! As we know, a TINY leak there will create a puddle of hot, flammable petrol that WILL boil and ignite! We can even get screw on filters with modern fittings from pump to filter then filter to carb, if we really want to, though I stick with the original scheme too.

If you feel burdened by owning too many 440s, we might sometime want to altruistically relieve you of one, though my 383 does well with the restored 915 heads and the Eddy Brock!

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

BRAVO Isaiah! I too like running capillary tube temp gauges, and busted out a couple weeks ago on a new one, purchased from Summit. To avoid plugging essential ports on my water pump housing, I modified a Dorman thermostat housing by drilling and tapping it for a temp gauge. You have to do this to a Dorman 902-3012, shown below from AutoZone:

View attachment 569985

That wart sticking out from the down tube perfectly suits a thermostat! Here's how it looks on my venerable 383:
View attachment 569986

It runs for $10-15, depending on where you buy it. A little care about how certain thermostats are turned under this arrangement should be exercised, as one doesn't want the thermostat bulb interfering with the opening or closing of the thermostat. It's never happened to me, but it could, if I got sloppy or bought a thermostat with an absurdly big bulb.

You certainly prettied up that engine! I hope it sounds and runs as nice as it looks.

Looking good - however, be VERY CAREFUL running a rubber fuel line between the fuel pump and the carb, even for a test run or a break in - it should be a hard line to avoid any sources of heat or friction (like a hot exhaust manifold and drive belts). A hot exhaust manifold can light off a rubber fuel line before you know it.

The ONLY rubber should be the two very short bits that connect the short hard line from the pump to the fuel filter, and the fuel filter to the longer hard line that goes to the carb.

Do it right and be safe.

Look at the photo of my 440 - you can see the bottom of the fuel pump, and the lines and the rubber pieces and the filter.

View attachment 569987

Thanks fellas! Yes, I do plan to install a hardline. I have the original to use as a template, will be installing that before the car is ready to drive on the road! Looking forward to hearing this beast run finally.

 

[LocuMob]

Remember, have a fire extinguisher at the ready. Better safe than sorry.

 

[stubs300]

Do yourself and me a favor and lose all that rubber fuel hose and replace it with hard line! You'll thank me later. I don't know why people are so lazy to use rubber hose where it shouldn't be used at all!

 

[Scoopy G]

Another one of Stubbs' grouchy (yet redundant) posts.

 

[livininharrow]

it looks like you have the sensor on the outlet of the thermostat housing i cant see how a temp gauge sensor on the outlet of the thermostat housing would serve any useful purpose. you want to monitor the engine temp at all times especially in the event of a thermostat failure. am i missing something here? if so please elaborate.

 

[stubs300]

Another one of Stubbs' grouchy (yet redundant) posts.

It won't be redundant after his vehicle is burnt to the ground because of his laziness to use the correct parts and not shortcut ****!!!