jholmes217

What engine did your Mach 1 have? I'm looking for the FE (390 & 428) setup.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm looking for an electronic with vacuum advance, so I'll pass. Thanks.

Is the Accel distributor a dual point or electronic? Does it have have vacuum advance?

Interested in the FE Accel Distributor. What is the part or model number?

Saw it again last night going North on I5 around Fort Lewis.

Saw a nice 1969 coupe painted orangish red with GT style stripes, Mach 1 blackout hood with scoop, and front and rear spoilers by the DuPont Medical Clinic. Belong to anybody here?

They show up on Craigslists pretty often in the $150-$200 price range. I wouldn't pay more than that for one. Just be patient and you'll get one in that price range. You'll also want to port match it to the heads for best results.

I'd find out what intake manifolds are on the engines first. If they are Edelbrock Streetmaster 390 or Holley Street Dominators, then they will fit no problem, even with a spacer. Other single planes are taller, and may cause problems with clearance.

Found one.

I'm looking for a Holley 428 Cobra Jet carburetor front metering block with the number 5673 to complete a carburetor. Send an e-mail to jholmes217 at AOL dot com. Not interested in one of the "U" factory replacement carb metering block with the second set of numbers.

I had a funny find while working on my Mach 1 over Thanksgiving weekend. My car is a 1969 Q code Mach 1. The Q code means non-ram air, so it doesn't have the shaker hood sticking out of a hole in the hood. My car also doesn't have the Cobra Jet script on the hood scoop, just the rectangular 428 emblems. So, someone would have to get pretty close to tell this is a Cobra Jet car and not a 390 or 351 car. Anyways, I was told by the guy I bought the car from that previous owners were serious street racers. Imagine my surprise when I found a set of rectangular 351 emblems in the ashtray! Evidently, one of the previous owners would take the 428 emblems off and put 351 emblems on and go trolling for suckers to street race him. I'm not knocking 351 Windsor engines mind you. These days with stroker kits and aluminum heads, a 351 Windsor can be built to more cubic inches than a 428 and much more powerful. But back in the 60's and 70's, the 351 was not considered a performance engine. Most X brand drivers back then would jump at the chance to race a 351 powered car for money thinking they would have a sure win. I never thought a Mach 1 could be considered a sleeper, but in this case, maybe I was wrong! I'll bet there would have been some pissed off people if they found out they were suckered into racing a 428 Cobra Jet instead of a small block!

I'd go with a 570 cfm Holley Street Avenger, A Summit 600 cfm, an Edelbrock 600 cfm, or a Holley 600 cfm, all vacuum secondary, or a Autolite 4100. With that mild of a motor, I wouldn't go over 600 cfm.

I like the 80's look too! As we used to say back then, Totally Awesome!

I like the classic street machine look of American Racing Wheels, Keystone Classics, or Crager SST myself if you don't go with Magnum 500s or chrome styled steel wheels that were factory.

Go towards the bottom of this article. This is how I like to do it. http://www.totalengineairflow.com/tech Get you a timing tape like this http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performance+Products/555/40710/10002/-1 or in some other way mark off your balance. I do one valve, then rotate the balancer to the next one, then wait at least 10 minutes to let the lifter bleed off. No mess this way, and it worked great last time I did it on a 302. I'll hopefully try it on shaft rockers on my 428 this spring.

Do you by chance have a build sheet that tells what kind of rings and seals were used? Some rings seat faster than others.

Could be the intake gasket (those crappy Print-O-Leaks.) That would be one of the easier fixes. All others involve pulling the heads or pulling the whole engine. Any idea how many miles are on this engine?

Another thing. Whatever headers you go with, make sure they are ceramic coated. Under hood heat is a big issue with big block Mustangs, and the ceramic coating will help with that.

If your intake gaskets are Fel-Pro Print-O-Seal, then that is probably the culprit. They are more for race engines that are disassembled often. They don't last long on street engines. They have the nickname of Print -O-Leaks! I'd go with a different intake manifold. The Edelbrock Performer is great for low end torque like for a truck, but not good for for mid to upper range power. A Blue Thunder, or Edelbrock Streetmaster or Performer RPM, or Holley Street Dominator would be a better choices for better power through the RPM range. Headers options will be few with the TKO trans. Stan at FPA might be your best bet. Barry Robotnick at Survival Motorsports has some new aluminum heads he calls FElony heads that look promising. I'm thinking of getting some of those for my 428 CJ.

I'm thinking of trying out some of the "Hot Rod" oil from Edelbrock or another maker, mailny for the rust inhibitor they say they add for cars that are in storage for extended periods of time.

I would recommend it.

Make sure you use a oil specially made for breaking in a flat tappet cam. It will be high in zinc, and low in detergent. Run that for the 1st 100 miles after the 20-30 break in. Then change it out and replace with the same stuff for the next 500 miles. After that, you can either go with a "hot rod oil" that has the zinc in it, or use conventional oil and add a zinc additive. Edelbrock, Brad Penn, Joe Gibbs, Royal Purple, etc. all make oils now that are for older cars with flat tappet cams. I use conventional Castrol 10W-30 with a bottle of ZDDP. If you try to go with regular oil or synthetic oil with a flat tappet cam and don't use a zinc additive, you are putting your cam and lifters at risk in my opinion.

If you can't find ones for a 69, 67/68 ones might work.

They are out there, but you may have to mail it. Not many left on the corner in every town. Here's one I found on Google: http://www.thebrassworks.net/

1st thing is to ensure you timing is good before making final carb adjustments. As said earlier, set your idle mixture screws for highest vacuum with a vacuum gauge 2nd. If you have an automatic, set the idle with the car in gear with all accessories on full blast and high beams on. Either have a friend hold the brakes down, or what I do is nose the front wheels into a curb and set the parking brake. Set you idle in gear to about 650 RPM for a mostly stock engine. If your engine is modified, then you will have to play around to find out what it likes. Your idle in park will probably be around 1000 to 1200 RPM when warmed up. Idle may be as high as 1500 RPM if the engine is cold and first started with an electric choke. By the way, if your 351 is mostly stock, I think your carb is too big. It would probably run better with something in the 600-670 cfm range. A 428 Cobra Jet came with a smaller carb (735 CFM) than you have on your 351.