1962 Bel Air Bubble Top 409 Project

[CASHguzzler409]

Now that's funny. Loved that show, and you were right about the "bugs", I've come to find out that the more bugs you have the more you learn about fixing your own
car. My good friend Barry "aka buzzsaw", told me to take it on short trips at first, then a little longer one, that way you can find those bugs and not be sitting on the side
of the road. I'd be screwed, as I have no cell phone, no OnStar, just a wife that still cares enough to come find me. LOL. Now we can start fixing up the enclosed trailer for are ONCE in a life time trip to Bowling Green, really am excited, but nervous as I am going to run it down the strip, can't wait. cash

 

[tripower]

The speedometer head operates with magnets so if you lube the head it won't work, ask me how I know.... The only way to repair it is to disassemble clean and reassemble. Hope that is not the case with yours.

 

[CASHguzzler409]

You know Tripower I was under that dash for months, the new harness bulb containers almost have to be put into the housing before you assemble it.
I might have to go under again, as my gas gauge is not working quite right. Im heading out soon for another break in drive, so we'll see if the speed-o works.
The weather is just something else, about 85 or so today. Thanks for the tip on lubing the cable. You have to be kind of careful around these gear heads,
when you talk about lubing something. lol

 

[CASHguzzler409]

Update on 2nd test drive. Not Good. Drove around the area maybe 3 - 4 miles, the car was starting to heat up 200 or so, pulled into driveway and the car
stalled. Percolation, gas to hot, all of these. My last fix was to move the fuel line away from the engine a little more, then insulated the fuel line from the pump to the bowl. I ordered the carb insulators form Show cars and will install as soon as they get here. After looking closer at my fan, I've decided i need to move it out of the fan shroud some, its not 1/2 in 1/2 out, this could help with cooling. To do this what would be the best way, I believe it has a spacer on the fan assembly, could I just take that off ?, maybe they make a smaller one.? I also read where you can take your gas cap and drill some small holes
to insure its doing its job. I am running original dual snorkel with paper filter. I also did a fuel pump pressure test before putting it in the first time, I believe it was 3-4 pounds pressure. I have the 4657 pump which is suppose to be a 6.-6.5 psi. I am going to recheck that pump today.
After reading 50 blogs about engine overheating, I was hoping that I would be the lucky one and not have these problems. lol Just another learning chance.
Will fill you in later on my progress.

 

[tripower]

You should running a clutch fan that does not use a spacer.

 

[62impala409]

I found that an open face air cleaner solved a lot of my carb problems. The reason being that the big black housing would trap a lot of engine heat and fuel vapor inside. When I would shut the car down for a short period of time to run an errand, I would have trouble refiring the hot engine. I would get black smoke at startup, and the engine would run extremely rich like the choke was on for about a mile or so. I firmly believe what was happening was that the fuel in the carbs would boil, saturate the black air cleaner and paper air filter with fuel vapor because it had no place to dissipate to. Adding the carb spacers and using non alcohol fuel helped quite a bit, but the big air cleaner still needed to be left off except for car shows. I also installed a return line to the fuel tank to keep the fuel circulating in the hot engine compartment. I used an .080 orifice and have about 3# of fuel pressure at the carbs. The 63 and 64 engines also used the return lines to help prevent vapor lock. This is the type of air cleaner I went to.
My wife has a '65 Buick Skylark convertible with a 300 cu inch, 2 barrel engine that had the same fuel vapor problem when running the original air cleaner. When we would exit a freeway, the car would barely run at the bottom of the ramp because of all the alcohol laden fuel in the air cleaner. Just a really rough idle until the fuel vapor cleared with some fresh incoming air. We went to an open element chrome air cleaner on that engine too with good results. The car runs normal coming off the freeway now. I am going to start using non alcohol fuel in this car too. The Buick does not have a carb spacer. I would be interested in how others are dealing with their stock air cleaners.

 

[CASHguzzler409]

Thanks try-power, I just looked at mine and it does not use a spacer. My fan is all the way in the shroud, and am trying to figure out how to adjust the fan, so its in the right position. I will also test the clutch fan now that I know how. I just tested the fuel pump and it reads 3.5 - or so. Its a AC4657 pump, they say it should be capable of 6 psi . ?? Thanks for the picture and help.

 

[CASHguzzler409]

62Impala409 nice looking set up. When you run a return line to the gas tank do you need a special fuel pump with fittings for that?. I guess I could test
the engine with out a air cleaner for a short drive. I will have to try all of these idea's thanks stan

 

[62impala409]

Cash, does your fan shroud look like mine? My fan is 1/2 in, 1/2 out. The hot air needs to spill off the blade tips.The 348/409 shrouds are an inch and a half shorter than the small block shroud. You can tell by the ribs. The correct shroud has only one full circular rib rather than the small block shroud which has two ribs. I used a tee fitting with an .080 orifice in the return port to return the fuel through my original 5/16 fuel line to the tank. I did add the 3/8 fuel line for the 409 engine.

 

[tripower]

Do you have the 348-409 fan shroud?

 

[pvs409]

Add water wetter to your water to help. I do not have a clutch on my fan, I wanted the fan to run all the time. I purchased a 6 blade fan for mine and bought a spacer -to bolt to the factory deep groove pulleys, to get the fan blade in the right place just inside the fan shroud closest to the motor.
I have a 165 degree thermostat in mine. You need to run a thermostat. Do you have anti freeze ? I have a 4 core radiator (a must)
I got almost all these items from previous review of 409's running hot.
I added the filler panels to the top of my radiator support to help direct air to my radiator.
I do not have a return line.
Runs 180-190 degrees most of the time.
Paul

 

[CASHguzzler409]

Is it true ? if you can spin the clutch fan while the engine is not running, it means the fan clutch is no good. And, can they be rebuilt or just hang it on the wall?. Mine spins..... I did buy a new shroud, 409 type, my fan blades are somewhat in. I can't figure out how to adjust the fan or the shroud. Im thinking
that a new clutch is in order.

 

[pvs409]

this is the kind of spacer I used to place the fan in the same location.
http://www.show-cars.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=6021

this is the type of fan I bought (in blue to match the car), based on a recommendation from a member on the forum who drives his car at slow speeds on occasion and does not overheat.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Flex-A-Lite/4...Hg5iOBEb5xZ8jxLkdwsu-JAqFWoqPoRkHlhoCZyTw_wcB

Paul

 

[pvs409]

This is the link on this forum, on the fan and spacer that I was referring to and use of these items to keep the car cool.
One car is a 427 car the other from California is a 62 409 convertible. Note the fan recommended and the spacer.

http://www.348-409.com/forum/threads/can-someone-recommend-a-fan.18274/page-2

Paul

 

[DonSSDD]

If you are running in 90 degree weather, 200 is not that hot, were you in stop and go traffic? You are also breaking in a new motor, it may run a bit hotter until things loosen up a bit. I would use a IR gun to make sure your gauge is accurate before doing anything. Make sure your gauge is good and put a couple of thousand miles on it and see how hot it runs.

Don

 

[CASHguzzler409]

Im going to buy a new Clutch fan and think that 3.5 psi isn't enough for fuel pump. As you see I went to the small air cleaners to try and see the difference
in temp's. Here's some pic's of what I have for cooling. The Rainier beer was very cold going down, hope it does its job of holding left overs. lol

 

[blkblk63ss]

What are you using for a radiator?????

 

[CASHguzzler409]

Bought a new radiator and its a 4 core for cooling 409's. I really think a new clutch fan is going to help, I like all the ideas from everyone that has had
this problem, it really helps.

 

[jdk971]

fan maybe a snapper hair to far in. block all other holes around the shroud. jim

 

[CASHguzzler409]

How does one adjust the fan to go further in the shroud or out of the shroud a little. The radiator and fan shroud can't be moved and by the looks of the fan and clutch fan it can't be moved either. Today I did get my carb insulators and put those on. I also bought a new clutch fan and harmonic balancer tape for timing, plus a timing bolt on indicator. I watched a great video yesterday of a fellow timing his corvette, so I will set the initial timing and total timing , install the clutch fan and see if the cash guzzler won't run a little cooler. Am learning as I go, its so cool to take the 409 out for a drive, just can't wait for a longer drive, but first have to take it and get the front end aligned.