MTFCA Forum

Found out Grandpa's ~50 year old solder job finally gave up. Probably in the market for a new Rad, but since he put a custom milled down chevy water pump which has its inlet (radiator outlet) on the passenger side I don't have the heart to buy a new radiator then immediately torch it up. Local shop ...

Figured I'd post a follow up on this after nearly 2 years of continued frustration. Think I've finally gotten at least part of the issue fixed. The engine runs nicely now, but still seems to run very rich on #3 and #4 cylinders but at least it runs. In the end, based on some recommendations received...

Thanks Scott, I'll keep that in mind when i put this thing back together.

That's some serious dedication revisiting the whole thread. Due to my slacking off on working on it and the machine shop taking a few months to redo the head this is becoming a very loooooong thread, both in age and comments.

Thanks for all the replies guys, been on vacation for a couple weeks then getting caught back up with work. I truly appreciate all the responses and free advice. I only work on this thing an hour or two at a time every couple weeks and with every response you guys give I learn something new and take...

Found that A cam thread, pretty interesting. Scott, that would make sense, but unfortunately this is a Frontenac head, so there's only one intake port on it, I sprayed the snot out of it with brake clean and carb cleaner trying to sniff out any vacuum leaks at the beginning of this ordeal but didn't...

All right, after many months, I'm back again.... I may be dumb for working so hard on this, but it was one of grandpa's T's (technically this was his best friends that he got from him) and it has a lot of family history so keeping it the way he had it means a fair bit to me, even if its not the logi...

Figured I'd better come back and update here. Tried everything mentioned above without positive results so we went ahead and pulled the head off. Looks like we probably have some sort of issue with the valves floating or not seating properly as the valve seats were a bit toasty. Dropped off the head...

Haven't gotten it all figured out yet, but closer for sure, see my last post about 3 or 4 above this one. I did separate the plug wires and ohm them out. Hopefully get back after it this weekend.

Thanks Mark, not the craziest idea and has the potential to match what I'm seeing. Just desperately trying not to pull the head, but that sure seems like where we're "headed".

Wanted to post a quick update on this since we just revisited it this last weekend and finally have some idea of what might be going on. I've taken most if not all the suggestions above but to recap what I've done so far: Changed points, condenser and coil. Separated out the plug wires and validated...

@speedyTinc - forgot about mentioning the starting fluid, I sprayed all over the place and didn't notice any differences in idle pitch or speed. @kmatt2 that red wire is a ground for the condenser/ distributor. Goes from the bracket for the condenser to that plate. the points and condenser were repl...

QuickUpdate I checked the plug wires and looked for any cross spark and it seemed all to be ok. Took a quick video of it running, after checking all this stuff and pulling the spark lever all the way down (which in turn makes the distributor turn counter clockwise) it does seem to be running a bit s...

Quick update here for those interested. Still no resolution but have checked off a few things. Changed the condenser Removed the 8" long intake manifold and used a borescope to inspect inside the head, didn't notice any obstructions removed the Valve cover, hand cranked the engine and all valves app...

Great information on the gemsa badging. Makes sense as I mentioned that there wasn't much money to be thrown around back then. Got a busy week this week, but hope to put some of your suggestions to use on Sunday. Will say that we didn't oil the rockers/ stems and there is a felt pad under the cover ...

@Scott_conger Good eye it is indeed a gemsa. The idea behind getting this going is so my Mom can take it to the local car show an what not. You're right it is definitely not set up to be a parade cruiser. She used to race up the hill too in long beach in my grandpa's actual car. (he got this car I"m...

Thanks for the suggestions guys! definitely some things to check out. especially interesting about the split rocker shafts, that would definitely line up with what I'm seeing in the spark plugs. All 4 cylinders have spark, but I haven't gone the distance to make sure they're firing in the correct or...

@MichaelPawelek - Points are gapped, didn't remove/ rotate/ loosen the distributor to do so and thus far have relied on the "it used to be ok" mindest. With that said, your second comment may be spot on. Using the manual advance it does seem to even out. Just strikes me as odd as why it may have cha...

Actually, it is a T engine just quite heavily modified with overhead valve Fronty head on it, GM water pump etc. one other thing we did is check the compression and got 60/62/60/60 so that seems good. THe plugs shown in the photo are the new ones. probably 15 minutes of run time on them mostly Idle/...

probably along shot since I doubt many build them like this anymore but it's worth asking. Posted some photos of this years ago but now recently dragged my grandpa's model t out and have been working on it with my Dad. It's been sitting around likely since the mid 90's or so. Grandpa was big into th...