Baseline with New Holley Street Avenger 670

I installed a new Holley Street Avenger 670 carburetor and was surprisingly able to start up the car immediately.  The idle was decent and the air fuel mixture wasn't bad.  Without any tuning, I decided to drive it around the block just to see what it was like out of the box.  I didn't have any trouble but watching the AFR gauge, I could tell a little tuning was needed to get it to run good.  

I decided to go ahead and start tuning straight away and went with the float level first.  As a starting point, the front bowl level was about the middle of the view window.  I drained a little out of the bowl using one of the four bolts which hold the bowl in place.  I loosened the set screw and turned the nut for the needle and seat a half turn clockwise.  When I turned on the key, the electric fuel pump filled it right to the bottom of the sight window.  Done.

The rear fuel bowl was about 3/4 of the way up the sight window before any adjustment.  This one took two adjustments to get set to match the front bowl level.  The first adjustment was a 3/4 turn clockwise followed by another 1/2 turn clockwise.  It was then in good shape.

At idle, the car was at 13.5:1 so I thought I'd check the idle mixture screws.  I turned them in to see how far they were unscrewed and found they were only screwed out 1/8 to 1/4 turn each.  I just set them back as they were originally and left them alone.  

When driving, the AFR was about 14:1 which isn't bad.  When I really get on it, it seems to need a little more accelerator pump but I'll wait to change that.  However, I'll wait on that as there are other things more important and I'd like to work through this in a good order.

Stock Configuration of 670:

 Front Jet: 65 

 Rear Jet: 68
 Pump Nozzle: .031

Bad Timing for Carburetor Troubles

This past weekend, we moved to a new house.  I'd driven the Mustang a few weeks prior so driving it over to the new house seemed like the easiest part of the process.  The Mustang was a little tough to start but I got it going and out of the driveway.  However, once I started to drive down the road, it seemed to stumble and required quite a bit of gas to keep running.  It then almost died at the end of the street when I went to turn.  When I stopped at the next stop sign, the car died and would not restart.

I lifted the hood and started thinking of what might be wrong.  I looked down the carb and moved the throttle linkage.  I noticed the accelerator pump nozzle wasn't squirting out any gas.  I walked back to the house, got a gas can, and put a little down the carb and tried to start it.  It started immediately but then seemed to hesitate when I attempted to take off.  If I didn't press the gas, it would idle no problem so it just seemed to be the accelerator pump.

I decided to drive it over and just give it quite a bit of gas when accelerating and planned to just go a route that would not require many stops.  I made it to the new house with this approach.  Once at the new house, I checked again and the accelerator pump nozzle still wasn't working.  Content that I knew what was wrong, I started working on moving everything else.

Cutting and Reinstalling Lowering Blocks

I'll be moving in a few months so I wanted to go ahead and put back in the lowering blocks before I lost them in the move.  Instead of just installing them, I thought I'd try to cut one of them so that I could get the Mustang to sit level in the back.  This is certainly not recommended but I figured it was work an experiment.

Before starting, I measured and the rear passenger side was at 26 1/2" and the driver side was at 26 3/8".

The stub which sticks up on the leaf spring is .35 tall.  This is important as the hole in the spacer is only .6 deep.  This gives me an idea of how much I could remove from the spacer without the leaf spring stud bottoming out in the spacer. 

I cut the lowering block down from 1.007 to 80.  The cut wasn't great so I'd like to do it better later if this ultimately ends up working out.  

Once I put it all back together and it is currently at 26" on both sides.  This leveled everything out but one side bumper (driver) is about 1/8" lower.  I'll have to work on this some more as some of this is related to the suspension and some is related to the bumper itself.  For now, I'm going to post the detail so I don't forget it.

Post HRPT Clean-Up & Action Items

This morning, I finally pulled the Mustang out of the garage to give it a good wash.  With the rain we encountered and all the miles on the road it was covered in dirt.  The worst was the front wheels which were covered in a dark layer of brake dust.  The job was quick and easy and included using my wash mitt on the inside of the engine bay some to get it clean.  

Before cleaning up the interior, I decided I'd drive it to get it dry and then change the oil.  As with my previous oil changes, I used a Wix 51515 and 5 quarts of Pennzoil ZR1 10w30.  The oil level was still perfect so if I burned any oil over the 3,000 miles it was minimal.  There was a little debris on the drain plug magnet but nothing concerning.  This bit trip likely has the motor now fully broken in as it reached 8,401 miles today.

I then vacuumed the carpet which was still a little damp from the A/C leaking into the passenger floorboard.  After vacuuming the carpet, I pulled the sill plates, kick panel, and shifter bezel so that I could pull up the carpet allowing it to dry better.  I put a little Febreeze on it and then left a fan blowing into the window so that it will dry in all the 100+ degree heat we have been enjoying lately.  

As with every trip, I come home with a few things I'd like to work on.  This list is really minor considering the size trip and what could have gone wrong so I'll probably work through these slowly.   

• Install driver headlight wiring
• Reinstall lowering blocks
• Replace transmission fluid
• Front disc brakes squeak
• Rattle behind rear seat back
• Buzz noise from behind dash
• A/C vent tube 
• Hot start issue
• Clutch reservoir
• Throttle return spring
• Fix Broken positive battery clamp

HRPT Day 10 - Home!

Today is Father's Day and the last day of the Power Tour trip.  We did nothing but drive all day from Lousiana back home.  We made good time but it was still such a long drive.  We pulled into the drive with 2,884 miles on the trip odometer and had reached the goal of 10 states in 10 days.