Are the piston ring end gaps adequate?  Beyond that, I’ll suggest a cranking compression test.  If you have leak down tester handy, that will be more definitive in isolating the problem to a single cylinder and exactly how bad the problem is if it is indeed a problem related to one cylinder and not all of them.  Excessive leak down on all the cylinders will also point to a different set of fixes for the problem.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Well....Our engine is super hard to start and there is a lot of crank case pressure. We did put a little bigger cam in it but not dramatic.  Resized pushed rods are also in.  We're not sure if it's rings, cracked block, or what.  Any ideas?  Our next step is to check combustion pressure. Lots of blow by. Something"s wrong.

Our engine is running with stock intake and carb setup.  After a few more runs, we'll take off the stock assy and put on the webers.  We need to make fuel rails and throttle linkage.  Any suggestions will be appreciated.

ee

Just got the adapters back from my machinist friend, Harry. These go between the Weber intake runners and the head. A real professional job. Things are moving slow with this virus

Thanks.  I have the gears and the distributor. I thought someone might chime in and suggest something more exotic but I guess there really wasn't much exotic back then for these engines. 

That drive gear is the same as a 390.  I had to replace a couple and that is what it crossed over with.  My local supplier (not NAPA, Oreilly's or 
Autozone), had them in stock.  

I would use a 57 or later distributor because it would look more natural. A Ford Y-block would work and much easier to find but would require replacing the drive gear with a Lincoln gear. I have converted a couple Lincoln stribs. for use in Ford y-blocks by doing the opposite. If you need a drive gear, let me know, I should have both. Just my 2 cents, JEFF...........


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

Advice is Wanted:  I'm still looking for a new distributor. Should I go with a generic replacement with pertronix or a retro Mag look, or?   1" aluminum plates are at the machine shop getting milled to accept the plenum and water lines. Block is ready for test runs once we get the radiator hooked up, plug wires fitted and exhaust manifolds bolted on. Getting Close!

Got the Weber/SBC intake manifold today. Unbolted the weber plenum.
The diameters of the runners match the 368 heads within a 16th of an inch.