Peeeot

As much fun as it is to try and guess what might be wrong with your 57 Ford ( black) it is sort of like playing the game Battleship. One wild guess after another.

Can you hook up a compression tester and get some reading both dry and wet. POST the results.

Attach a manifold vacuum gage to the engine and leave it on while your car starts and then starts to have its problem(s) POST the results.

Leave a inductive timing light attached and test for regular spark pulse both before and after the problem happens. POST the results.

Throwing new parts at a car will work after some period of time but it will get expensive. Car engines are just air pumps. Put a combustibe gas in and provide a spark at the proper time then allow the spent gas to exhaust, then start the process again.

Give the forum some HARD DATA and you will get more than guesses. Pete

Hi Pete!

I'm not sure what you mean by wet and dry compression, but the numbers taken hot after the problem showed up were as follows: 167,161,161,156,158,160,160,155

Manifold vacuum is upwards of 20". The needle is very steady until the misses show up. The needle will dip a couple points with each miss and bounce back basically in an instant. The vacuum drops off as the engine stops.

I will have to check the ignition signal cold again as I haven't in some time. When it is really acting up (hard to even get it to start up) there is far more "dead" time than flashing time shown by the timing light on the coil wire.

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

PETE, if you follow all the posts from #1 you can follow whats been checked at this point, i think there are a few other components that help the air pump run correctly.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

PEEOT, to me those comp figures are around 10% variation and fair for age of car. i cant help think the needle dip could be sticky or non seating valve to drop a couple of points, but still anything is possible. I,m assuming you have adjusted valves and checked for bent p/rod? Just my thoughts as i read on in your quest.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

The wet/dry comp test is retesting the cyls again but with a small squirt of oil in cyl you are testing, it basically restores compression at the rings and generally shows little difference if rings are good or greater difference in poorly sealing rings, i would be supprised if that is your problem. regards bill.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Bill, I agree with you. I find no fault with the compression. I just did a valve adjustment about a week ago, and no pushrods are bent. It is extremely difficult to tell whether the fluctuations in the vacuum signal are responsive or causal. I believe they are responsive, as it is not at all surprising to me that there would be a dip in vacuum when an ignition miss occurs.

1954 Crestline Victoria 312 4-bbl, 3-speed overdrive

PETE, if you follow all the posts from #1 you can follow whats been checked at this point, i think there are a few other components that help the air pump run correctly.

AussieBill YYYY Forever Y Block YYYY

Bill, If this were 1970 in the US and peeeot drove his 57 Ford into any garage a guy who was very familiar with cars with points and carburetors would diagnose the problem and fix it. He could hook up his Sun machine, his occiliscope his timing light and his vacuum gauge. HE WAS THERE and he OBSERVED the symptoms.

This isn`t 1970 it is 2013 and the members of this forum are not where peeeots 57 Ford is and so we rely ,on the written description we get.

I find peeeots descriptions to be be vague confusing and not prescise, and or descriptive. This is probably a personal failing but since NO ONE else including YOU has any solution a BETTER, CLEARER, EXACT report on; 1 The manifold gauge reads X when first started and after warm up just prior to stalling reads Xa would tell me a lot. Like if the exhaust system has a mouse nest inside that is choking off the exhaust gas.

I agree with you that he has several components to replace ( engine ) ( car ) but that seems excessive to me. JMPO Pete

If you read the Posts a suggestion I made early in the topic was to do a scope test with someoe who knows what they are doing and that should give a clearer picture of what is breaking down.I still think that would give an answer to this ongoing problem which I believe is ignition related.JMO!

  

Yes, is difficult converting mechanical function to exact words and not being there, we are all only turning on our expeirence and having fun while we help, most of all peeoot, certainly gets my vote for dedication and perserverence. Actually that garage guy you describe was me , with automotive repair shop in mid 70,s till 1990, and specialising in all cars makes models mostly with carbs and points. I only just sold my SUN tune up machine! We await more reports.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Don't often hear about "plugs n points" anymore.
I started my apprenticeship in 1972 and back in those days we didn't replace anything.
I had to clean spark plugs on the old Champion abrasive cleaner and then "refurbish" the contacts on the points with glasspaper.
An hours labour to save $10 in parts but that was how it was done then.
We had a timing light in the workshop but the old guys said they could do it better by "ear"
Times have changed a little.........

Gary - 1958 Star Customline and 1940 Ford Deluxe Hotrod