Category Archives: Car Restoration

Engine Line-Up: 1960 Edsel

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The Edsel.  Name sake for Henry’s son.  Touted as “ugly” and a failure.  I disagree.

I think they were great and I plan on own one at some point. ( I was pretty close earlier this  year – just missed one at an auction.)  There is just something about tooling around in one of those  large and long 4 door land yacht.  Anyway..one day I will, if I just borrow one for a week.

So in the last year of the Edsel what engines were available?

The car came in 4 configuration, body-wise.  A 2 door sedan, a 2 door convertible; a 4 door sedan and 5 door wagon, but only two engine options.

Your two choices were of the V8 and straight six variety.

Ford‘s 292 was the V8 power plant .  It sported overhead valves, an iron block and hydraulic lifters.  The compression was ratio 8.8:1 and with a bore and stroke of 3.75 x 3.60.  It came with a 2 barrel carb – model B9A9510-A.  Interesting the block and heads were painted black and the value covers and air cleaner were red.

There was the option inline (straight) 6 cylinder.  That too had overhead valves and an iron block.  Bore and stroke was 3.62 x 3.60 and compression ratio 8.4:1. It displayed 223 cubic inches with 145 horse power.  It was topped with a 1 barrel carb, model B9A9510F.   It had the same paint scheme as the V8 but was considered a “delete” option in the Rangers series.

223 Straight (Inline) 6 cylinder with the proper paint scheme

Add 2 more cylinder and buy an extra can of paint for additional valve cover and you'll have this 292 with the proper paint.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Coming Up.

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Hope everyone has recovered from heavy eating and traveling, I know I need to rest up before Christmas, maybe even drop a couple of pounds ahead of time.

I’m also to attempt to meet my goal of 500 posts before the end of 2011. (Yes this one counts).

I have a couple of contests coming up with some auto related DVD’s to give away and some a couple of parking lot finds, and a feature car or two.

So swing by and drop me a comment.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Contests

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I have 14 CD/DVDs to give away.

So I’m going to give the next two individuals that sign up for my feed a copy of the DVD Classic Automobile Films.

If you are reading this, grab my feed and then send an email too:

timsweet@average-guys-car-restoration-mods-racing.com

Include the address you’d like to have the DVD send to.  It’s that easy.

I don’t share any information with anyone, nor do I keep that type of information, even for my own purposes.

Mustang Project Guy’s Slice of Heaven

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“Honey…I found our next vacation spot..hear they got a  nice Motel 6 nearby!!!”  “Honey…can we  go now?!!! The Turkey will keep until next week!!!”

Photos: World’s Largest Ford Mustang Salvage Yard

Posted by on November 21, 2011 – 2 Comments

salvage 8

Everybody knows that saying “I’ve died and gone to heaven”, and this applies to most enthusiasts in this junkyard full of old decrepit Ford Mustangs. Especially, the project guy that has an old classic sitting in the garage. I’m sure it could go either way, though, as some might consider this a sore sight with so many wrecked and rusted ponies. This is the Colorado Mustang Salvage Yard.

Soooo, anybody down for some campin’?!

Colorado Mustang Specialists, Inc. began in a two-car garage in 1972. Mustangs were as numerous as hippies on a Boulder park lawn, easy to buy, fix and sell. So, a would be University of Colorado student found a lucrative way to pay his rent and tuition. After graduation the diploma went in a drawer and the horsing around got serious. Wrecked, junked and abandoned Mustangs were cheap and plentiful, so the collection started that eventually led to the worlds largest Mustang salvage yard.

Most recent and exciting to us is the addition of modern fuel injection conversions, for 64-1/2 to 85 models. These conversions and related parts let the novice enthusiast bring his early Mustang into the new millennium with a computer driven, fuel-injected, V-8 power train, meeting todays standards without changing the Mustangs classic design. We predict these conversions will open a fun and exciting new era of Mustang enthusiasm.

1971 Chevy Engine Line-Up Part II – The 454

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One of my regular readers, Bill, posted the following question in response to the piece I wrote on Chevy engines.   Bill asked…

“No 454 V8 in 1971? I guess that motor came later. ..”

That get me to thinking so I did a little more research.  The references I’m use are “Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book” by Peter Sessler; “Standard catalog of American Cars” by John Gunnel and “110 years of the American Auto” by  James Flammang and Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.  I try not to get too much from the Internet at large.

Interestingly enough the 454 is briefly mentioned in the Ultimate American V-8 Engine Data Book, but there aren’t many details.  That reference shows that the 454 was available in 1971 as a 4V producing 365 horse power.  It doesn’t show under any model just as a general option for Chevy’s.  I’m assuming it was just a 400 block with a different bore and stroke.

The 454 was developed by 1970.  It’s bore was 4.251 in and had a 4 inch stroke (where as the 400 had 4.251 in bore and a 3.75 stroke).  There were other version in 1970 and 1971, designated as the LS5.  This version of the 454 was used in the 1970 and beyond in Corvette for one instance and was used in Chevelle.

Interesting that it isn’t referred to in the mentioned references for 1971 year.

Hold the presses!!!!!

It appears that in the reference “Standard catalog of American Cars” by John Gunnel that the 454 was left out off the comprehensive listing of engines for 1971.  However, the 454 was use in the SS version of the Monte Carlo – 1,919 were produced.  For the Chevelle 80,000 were sold with the SS badge of those only 19,992 were with the 454.

1917 Chevelle SS 454

 

 

1971 Monte Carlo SS 454

 

And in this reference I found the answer to a question I’ve had for some time.  About 5 years agoing I was at a car show and ended up talking to a guy with a 1971 Nova SS.  It had a 454 as the power plant between the shock towers.  However there were 7,015 Nova SS packages sold, none had the 454 as the option.

Thanks for the spark to follow this up Bill.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Engine Line-UP: Lincoln 1953

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As you may know Lincoln was its own brand at one time, then picked up by Ford.

 

The 1953 Lincoln came with only one engine.

The V-8 Overhead value was a cast iron block.  It was able to displace 317.5 cid and had a bore and store of 3.8″x3.5″.  The compression ratio was: 8.0:1 and bushed out only 205 hps and that was breathing through a Holley 2140 4 barrel carb.

This a pic of a 1954 317 engine which is exactly the same as the '53

1953 Lincoln

 

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Terrible Transportation – Plymouth Cricket

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Oh yes this will be an interesting series.

We are going to start of with a well-meant attempt by Chrysler to meet the oil crises  from 1973 to 1980.  Introducing the Cricket!!!!

1973 Cricket

This car was actually  a US spec’ed Hillman Avenger.

It featured the Avenger’s 1.6 liter pushrod engine.  This car’s top speed was 84 mph and took a merely 19.8 seconds to get to 60 mph (I bet you were thinking 100 mph!!).

The car was horrible slow and because it was detuned for as part of the US requirements it ran poorly.

Here some of it features:

– Quick Rust fenders and body parts

– PVC coated foam interior for safety

You are going to want one after you see this ad:

[vodpod id=Video.15696452&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

The Plymouth Cricket, posted withvodpod
s

Thanks for reading.

Tim