Go With The Flow

Fixing A Bad Crankshaft Seal

And updating the Timing Chain, Water Pump And Fuel Pump.

And adding an Edelbrock intake and Holley carb!

This was really a by-product of a situation that has been an issue for a while. What started as a simple front cover seal replacement quickly snowballed into a whole bunch of other stuff!

The Front Cover Stuff

The primary issue at hand was a leaky crank seal and since it is in the front cover the face of the motor has to come off. So we defaced the motor to get to the front cover. Once we got the timing cover removed we were able to see that the seal was way gonzo and had three splits in it. And it was the OE seal! Time for it to go! The factory cover was blasted and repainted in the process. Well... then we looked at the water pump and discovered it was also a factory OE after all these miles. Since we were already here and it looked ratty I went ahead and got a new one. It was cleaned and repainted so it was as pretty as the timing cover. Way nicer!

Now with the timing cover off we were able to take a look at the timing chain and such and the decision was that "since we were here" we would go ahead and refresh that too. It was actuallyfunctional but still in pretty sad shape. I got a quality HiPo double roller set and put it in straight up, 0 degree timing. Most factory sets are retarded a few degrees out of the box so this may pick the performance up a notch.

A Fuel Pump Upgrade

The only twist to the install of this new carb / intake combo was the consideration of how to get a fuel filter into the mix nicely. While most factory carbs have the inlet filter on the carb body aftermarkets do not. Most of the cars you see with aftermarket carb / intake combos have this goofy glass or metal filters flopping around on the intake in front of the carb. Not only is is ugly but it is down right dangerous! I am not a big fan of this set up. So a new fuel pump was in order.

After replacing the older OE unit it needed a new feed line. The project of bending up a new hard line to run from the pump to the carb was tackled with a section of steel fuel line and my handy dandy tubing bender. It took me a couple of tries to get it right but persistence pays off. I also had to fab a support bracket similar to the Ford version to stabilize this line but no biggie. Now I have a beefy pump with a big replaceable filter on the pump and not on the intake manifold.

Ok! Now for the intake and carb

At this time it was decided to keep going and upgrade the intake and carb. So it just so happened that I had an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake sitting in the shop. A quick rummage through my stock of Holley carbs netted a 600 CFM Holley. Gee, what are the odds! [ Faye Dean! See... I have these "extras" for a reason! ] So the stage was set.

The install of an intake and carb is pretty routine. A set of good intake gaskets and some plumbing logistics and it is basically a very simple straight-forward project. But since every project is a wee bit different there are always some small details that need to be worked out.

The small logistics issues with my combo were pretty easy to deal with. Since my shop carb was a non-Ford unit the first thing was to update it to a Ford configuration. That meant a couple of parts were needed. The throttle plate assembly needed to be changed to the Ford kick down set. And then I needed to add Holley kick down extension because this car started life as a 2 barrel car. Installing it was quick and easy.