Intake Swap - Day 3 - 06/23/2007

Now that the kit has arrived, everything is ready to be put together and tested.



PCV is fixed with a little 3-way 3/8" brass T from CarQuest.



FINALLY the right kit. Funny how this kit contains less parts than the Chevy kit for the same year and similar application... This kit has a TON of adjustment instructions while the Chevy carb kit has ZERO though.



Starting to put it back together! It came nice and clean.



Check ball installed, spring installed, venturi assembly installed, new power piston gasket, air horn next.



Air horn is put together. The float height was supposed to be set to 19/32" and I adjusted it a little bit (1/32"-2/32") less than that for more fuel in the bowl. The float drop height was specified as 1 3/4", I adjusted it to around 1 13/16" for more fuel to be put into the bowl when the float drops.



Air horn is put back on and throttle linkage is put on.



More linkages added. All move smoothly.



All assembled and ready to go! We'll find out how well the bench adjustments were made and how much tuning on the car will need to be done.



Studs placed (1 is for vacuum) and baseplate gasket is installed.



All put together and ready to fire!



It runs! Fired right up after 30 seconds of crank time and went straight to high idle like it should. Aww crap it leaks fuel and coolant! Lots of tightening needed on the fuel inlet area as usual. Let the engine warm up and check all bolts and fittings and check for leaks. So far just the thermostat housing weeps a bit. The heat\cold cycle and tighten down has brought the leak to very little, but still existent. Hopefully it will go away, but I doubt it.



Choke pulls off beautifully as it should. No more fuel leaks. Minor coolant leak. No major cycling of coolant in the radiator as this engine does NOT get hot unless you drive it for hours.

I'm impressed with my skills. It fired up on the first try, put out 17.5inHg at idle with the vacuum advance hooked up, idle speed was perfect. When I blip the throttle it screams up in RPM and doesn't hesitate or bog at all (even in gear). It's a very very beautiful thing. The throttle return spring is kind of goofy and I'm not happy with it, I'll study how it was done in '65 and locate the parts to do it right (right now it is spring clipped to bolt for the win!). I drove it around the neighborhood and the thing flew up to 35MPH without issue. A few more hot\cold cycles around the neighborhood followed up by some leak checks and it will be time to bless it and send it on it's merry way around town for more testing and then hopefully be completely done! Unfortunately the '72 air cleaner doesn't like the coolant return hose as they used a smaller air cleaner in '65, so hopefuly Steve has one I can buy from him. The transmission is giving me fits now, which is annoying. Looks like Walt-Bilt will be getting more business in the near future as I don't want to monkey around with it now that Snack Cake is on the way.

Back to '67 Catalina

Last updated June 23rd, 2007