It's been awhile since I was really active on this board. I've been REALLY disappointed with my TF. Perhaps you can help me get her out of the doghouse.
Here's her story. She's supposed to be a low mileage Air Force truck. Who knows what the truth is. It is pretty solid though. She still had her 235 3 speed when I bought her two years ago. I really struggled with what direction to take her. I landed on 'nostalgia rod'. She's now got an Offy 2 carb intake, Fenton headers, dual exhaust with glasspacks, HEI, alternator and Carter/Weber progressive carbs. She's also got an Offy valve cover. I love the look. She runs like crap.
What's wrong. First, I think I just drove the life out of that engine last fall. She has 3.55 gears and 205 75R15 tires. I drove her a lot at about 70 mph on the highway. She always seem over-carb'd. She ran rich no matter what I did. I'm timing by ear because the timing marks don't work with HEI (right?). My last run last fall was a round trip on the highway with each leg being 60 miles. I drove her at 70 as I said. When I left, I had a full crankcase of oil. When I returned I had nothing on the dipstick. This was the first time she ever really used oil. I never saw anything in my rear view mirror (smoke that is.) Now she smokes out the right side exhaust. (I think that's 1-3 cylinders.)
What have I done? I did a compression check and everything appears solid. The cylinders are up in the 160 range. However, #1 doesn't hold the compression. I pumped 150# of air into that cylinder and it shot out the tailpipe. Exhaust valve? I have taken another head to my favorite machine shop to be rebuilt with hardened seets. I haven't pulled the head off the engine in the truck yet. I guess I'll know when I get the head off if I need to rebuild the block. Any ideas or suggestions here?
What else? Back to the carburetion. I'm still running the stock cam; probably original. The truck is suppose to have 20,000 miles on it. Like I said, who knows the truth. What should I be doing about the carburetion? New cam? What one? Cut back on the carburetion? How? What are your suggestions?
