Background: 3 weeks ago while idling into cruise nite my wife an I both smelled something. In the left side mirror I saw blue smoke from the thru bumper tail pipe. We pulled out of line and checked it was only on the left. We came  home.



56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

DLR, sorry to go off topic, but was the Wilwood MC pushrod the correct length? I know it's adjustable, but mine was too long. What did you do about proportioning valve? I have the Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve but had to mount it on the engine-side; there wan't enough room for it on the battery-side. Plenty of clearance/w Sanderson headers; hopefully, ceramic coating will keep the heat off the proportioning valve and MC.

55.. I bought Wilwood’s Mustang adjustable rod. I did a lot of pre-measuring on the MC to the plunger to the end and to the pedal compared to stock which I was either lucky enough to do before starting or smart. I’ll go with luck. I set the Mustang to the stock one and it was pertect.
if you look at my MC you will see an extended heat deflector I bought from Prestige TBird in Santa Fe Springs Ca. There also is one between the MC and prop valve. They are pained BBQ black and have a silver stick on sheet reflector from Home Depot. Definitely helps but with a heat gu the Mac is 120* up to 140*.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Thanks, DLR. You're the 2nd person who said he used the Mustang MC/pushrod. Mine is not yet in service, so I'll go ahead and get the Mustang pushrod and compare. My MC is 15/16ths, which was recommended by Wilwood and Dave (Drop 'em, Stop 'em) for disc/drum manual brakes.  

I too have the 15(16” MC. Mine work great, better than all drum but slightly under vacuum assist. I also have 11 x 2-1/4” rear drums from a F-150. Since there is room I wish I would have drilled a hole in my pedal arm above the stock one for a little more mechanical advantage. It would never go into any bind. Now with my AC panel it would be tough to do. I would cut a bolt shank to fill the hole I didn’t use so I wouldn’t loose any of the pedal arm strength. 

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

James. Did you put a fresh hone or some kind of cross-hatch on that cylinder you replaced the rings on?

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Yes,  left all others alone; only removed the carbon ridge with a razor blade and vacuum cleaner. Could not feel any ridge forming. Only cleaned that 3/8” area of the other cylinders and the tops of the pistons. Used cardboard seals in all the other cylinders on that bank when cleaning. Vacuum cleaner was always on, Tough to do in the car. 

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

Might it be possible that you installed the oil scraper (second ring) ring upside down in that cylinder? 

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Lord………that was always my first thought, but that single set was installed 2000 miles and 2 years ago. The rings were NOS Ford like I said above with hard to see marks and the top ring was chrome. I do check plugs occasionally and they were all the same. Water under the bridge now.

Up date is it’s back together only the left side intake gave me any problems as the gasket didn’t want to split the the intake ports. A little bolt hole work and stickum on the outside edge was needed. They were Bests. Like above I cranked it over for 30 second with no spark plugs and it’s ignition off. I watched  all the push rod spin and that was enough time to fill both carbs. I also took the time to taper the exhaust flapper valve eliminator, apparently they aren’t for 312’s and I’ve changed mine.

Since the distributor was never moved after a few full pumps it started right up. There noise from an intake rocker on #6 but the rest were fine. All were set at .019 cold. After the temp was close to normal  I shut it down and check them all somehow the ticker was at.024. No leaks I can see and the paint smell makes happy right now. Tomorrow I’ll install the lower frame to engine shields and install the air cleaner. The oil fill tube will hold a piece of blue shop towel so the PCV system is working fine. There was no oil film found in the valve, hose ends, or tube in the system. I also wiped all the spark plug wires with brake clean and all of the looked great for 10 yrs old. 

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

That engine looks awesome.
Sounds like you've done a very thorough job and like you said, the cause of the problem is water under the bridge. Please keep us updated.

P.S. Those HF moving blankets make great fender covers don't they? 

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