Rob & Stu's 63 Polara 500

[steveo]

not sure if this is any help , have a look on page 18 / 19 , metro pdf catalogue , was having a look through their stuff the other night

https://www.metrommp.com/pages/FreeCatalog.html

https://www.metrommp.com/images/Catalog ... arPerf.pdf

[Stu Twin]

Thanks Steve, didn't find these before.
I think it's the ones that come in a 96" length and would probably have to ship via Ron. Unless 'WC 33-96' on catalog page 19 would work and is flexible enough to roll up for shipping.
I'll try an email.....

[RobTwin]

Don't you think it's ALP 27-A....?

Pic on following page shows it rolled-up so should be easily shippable....

[RobTwin]

The fact that we haven't posted on this thread for so long shows how reliable the car's been over the years, so we were a bit surprised and disappointed that it started playing up around the time of the 2022 Euronats

Just put this on fb so I thought i should get it on here before I get told off

Haven't used the 63 for over a year as we've been chasing a misfire which became a no-fire!
We replaced all the ignition parts (Firecore distributor, coil and leads) but found the dizzy didn't rotate freely so with a fair amount of help from our MMA mate Ian Mitchell (Herts meeting regular), we got it stripped and rebuilt back to where we could fit it.
In the meantime, Geof Hauser gave the carbs a once-over... not the full refurb we wanted but a quick clean and check there was nothing obviously wrong with them.
Ian came over last weekend to help install the dizzy correctly and we got it started and idling without a misfire for the first time in ages

Took 'her' out today to make sure it didn't misfire or stumble under load. Which it didn't thankfully.
Driver side plugs are still very sooty and the carbs don't really respond to mixture screw adjustments so they still need a proper looking at, but happy the car's up and running again

I did add a couple of short vids on facebook but you'll have to make do with this obligatory engine shot

[Pete]

Good that you have made progress.

[Stu]

Excellent news.

[Charger]

great job

[Dave999]

might be worth rigging up some vacuum advance.
that will help stop the plugs getting grubby at idle
45* under no load is perfect
with 15 initial to allow it to start.

i never bothered with it until i got some bits recently for mine.
vacuum can that worked and one of these

https://www.gsparkplug.com/1x-vacuum-ad ... 5wQAvD_BwE

well i had one of these. purchased about 15 years ago...Basically i found it again in the bottom of my garage "filing cabinet" ...


been a revelation,
just whacked it on manifold vacuum
i don't have ported vacuum on a weber DCOE
had to calm idle speed slightly

other than that best thing i've done in years... made the car feel 50% smaller, lift off the gas at speed and to be honest, and it is kinda like you didn't.
acceleration is a tad more aggressive, which is nice

no pinging in evidence.

my interest in adding vacuum advance again was piqued after reading this

https://www.460ford.com/threads/timing- ... er.117504/
a slightly different view from the usual..... you don't need it ....junk it etc which might be true if the car never saw street driving.


Dave

[RobTwin]

So... a couple of months back we got to the point where we realised our original (to the engine) carbs really could do with a proper rebuild. They were supposedly rebuilt 20 years ago just before we bought the car but judging by how the rest of the engine was thrown together, they probably just had a rudimentary clean up at best

As no one we knew wanted to get involved we had to take the chance on finding someone ourselves and settled on the safer option of a UK company rather than shipping them over to the States or Canada. Best option we could find was Coln Engineering down in Gloucester. They had some experience with Carters which is quite a rarity over here so we took the plunge and dropped them off with them the week after Easter.

https://www.colnengineering.co.uk/

After discussing what we thought was needed, and what they could offer, we agreed to have them disassembled, ultrasonic cleaned, spindles rebushed, steel parts replated, reassembled and bench set-up and tested. We supplied a rebuild kit from Mikes Carburetor Parts https://www.carburetor-parts.com/
which arrived within a few days and a screw kit from Laysons Restorations
https://www.laysons.com/
which took a few weeks... true to form, but at least it arrived!

I'm still waiting for any photos that Coln took during the strip down and rebuild but here's an idea of what we started with...

20240225_141429.jpg (164.13 KiB) Viewed 131 times

Then after 5 weeks (3 weeks waiting and 2 weeks work) they came back good-as-new

20240516_175533.jpg (152.91 KiB) Viewed 131 times

20240516_175401.jpg (157.04 KiB) Viewed 131 times

20240516_175941.jpg (154.14 KiB) Viewed 131 times

20240516_175543.jpg (160.39 KiB) Viewed 131 times

[RobTwin]

Then today, with the help again from MMA-mate Ian, we got them fitted with new fuel lines and spent a bit of time (understatement) setting the idle mixtures and getting them balanced.

20240516_195700.jpg (162.23 KiB) Viewed 127 times

20240518_182339.jpg (171.62 KiB) Viewed 127 times

20240518_182405.jpg (167.28 KiB) Viewed 127 times

20240518_182448.jpg (174.79 KiB) Viewed 127 times

20240518_182504.jpg (175.23 KiB) Viewed 127 times

Then on the 2nd turn of the key 'she' started right up and was idling smoothly within a few seconds - rather than the usual few minutes after a few turns of the key!

Road test started off well too; no stumbling or pinking under load, but after a while we did notice a bit of hesitation under load

Back in the garage, earlier suspicions of a vacuum leak were confirmed by spraying some WD40 and brake cleaner around the base of the inlet, in the only place it's accessible (centre of this photo, where the inlet meets the head). We confirmed there was a leak using the the rubber tube in the ear method - we could hear a similar noise to when we put the other end of the tube in the carb, for balancing

20240518_182749.jpg (143.26 KiB) Viewed 127 times

So just when we thought we were all set to use it for Brooklands, we now need to replace the inlet manifold gasket(s) and may as well do the valve cover gaskets while we're at it as they are tricky with the inlet in place.

One step forward, one step back, but getting there

[Stu]

It’s a good step forward, though! They look fantastic and sounds like they have made a real difference, despite the fresh issue.

[pete walton]

get Marc S to make you one of these ,i find it easy to use better than vac gauges ,,,,Sorry about the problems but they are easily solved if not rather annoying ...One thing i have found out is the stock MW air filters choke the life out of my engine ,,,It runs very rich with them on and i do not want to go down the route of rejetting as it runs perfect without them on ....Looking for some mw velocity stacks but they are no longer available as copys ....keep struggling on

[RobTwin]

It’s a good step forward, though! They look fantastic and sounds like they have made a real difference, despite the fresh issue.

Thanks Stu, spot on. At least now we know the carbs are ok, it made it easier to find the other issue. And curing the starting issues (if indeed it has done), has been an unexpected bonus

[RobTwin]

get Marc S to make you one of these ,i find it easy to use better than vac gauges ,,,,Sorry about the problems but they are easily solved if not rather annoying ...One thing i have found out is the stock MW air filters choke the life out of my engine ,,,It runs very rich with them on and i do not want to go down the route of rejetting as it runs perfect without them on ....Looking for some mw velocity stacks but they are no longer available as copys ....keep struggling on

Thanks Pete, it's good to hear you have yours running well now

We modded the base of our Sport Satellite's stock type air cleaner to add a bit more gap where the air gets in - it's about 1/4" now instead of 1/8". still not much but enough to make a difference, hopefully but I'm reluctant to chop these around... maybe worth getting a repro to modify, if they do them?

I saw that/those contraptions when you posted it a while ago but still dont know what they are? Presume that's a manometer on top? Do you only have one?

[RobTwin]

I meant to add, another indication that we still had a vacuum leak was, using the vacuum gauge, we could still only get around 5 inches at 900-1000 rpm idle. The data sheet we have for these carbs on this engine say they should have 19.5 inches at idle (idle being 900 rpm). Sounds optimistic

It'll be interesting to see what we can get when the inlet gaskets have been renewed