Had some musclecars through the shop in the last couple weeks. I'm amazed at the cars I see with $5,000 paint jobs and $2,000 worth of tires and wheels that can't pull 5,000 rpm in low gear. I had a 1969 Mach 1 Mustang come in. It was a beautfiul car in Grabber Blue. It had a 351W / FMX powertrain. It had 16" Torq-Thrust mags and 245 / 50ZR16 Comp T/A's on it. And it couldn't spin the tires on dry pavement, and coughed and spit under acceleration, and the transmission shifted very hard, when it shifted at all. Upon inspection I found multiple issues. The vacuum advance was unplugged, the timing was way too slow, the points were closing up. It had bad wires-so it was probably running on 6 or 7 cylinders. The carb was way too rich, the kickdown linkage on the transmission wasn't hooked up, and the vacuum modulator was spewing fluid. After changing the plugs and wires, and the points and condenser and distributor cap, rotor and wires,I set the timing to factory specs, hooked up the vacuum advance and replaced the modulator on the side of the transmission. Then I addressed the carb. It was a 1405 Edelbrock on a Performer Manifold-a stellar combination. I hooked up the kickdown linkage. I then screwed the fuel screws all the way in-they were way adjusted way too rich. I then turned them 2 1/2 turns out. This is the base setting out of the box. Starting the car-it sounded much better. On the test drive-I checked for men in blue. Feeling the coast was clear, I punched it from a light. The Mustang lit up the right rear tire all the way across the intersection, and when the FMX hit 2nd-it laid another 8-10 feet of rubber and made a nice, satisfying, "Rubber in 2nd" screech. The 351 kept pulling until let off at the top of 2nd gear,-going way too fast for the city street I was on. I punched it up a freeway on-ramp, stayed in it until 3rd gear, going well over 100 mph. I went back to the shop, and let the customer drive it. He was escatic. "Holy crap!" "Did you put a new engine in it?" "No it was just suffering from neglect on mulitple fronts." "This is how it should run." He was so happy that he tipped me $50 over the bill I charged him. He promised to send me all his friends. I thanked him. I see this all the time-a beautiful car that runs like shit because the motor's neglected, and maybe the owner doesn't know it-especially if he's not a gearhead or a mechanic. This Mustang-which was bone-stock except for the Edelbrock carb and intake which replaced a 2bbl setup-just need a thorough tune-up and check up. Once all the small issues were fixed-it ran like a scalded cat. I saw another one-a 440 powered 1973 Charger that idled rough, got crappy ( even for a 440 ) gas mileage and wouldn't run much over 3,500 rpm. It couldn't spin the tires either. This cars plug wires were so bad that I found three of them almost broke in two. So it was running on 5 cylinders. Further-the Thermo-Quad carb-was bleeding over badly and had multiple vacuum leaks-the bakelite body was badly warped. I replaced the plugs and wires and got a remanufactured Thermo-Quad from Summit. I bolted it on out of the box, and set the idle. The improvement was unbeleivable. Now it idled at 800 rpm, and would literally spin the tires as long as you wanted to stay on the throttle. The car's owner couldn't believe it. "It's never run like that and I've had it 2 years." I asked-have you ever had anyone tune it up or look at it?" He was kind of sheepish. "No, not really." "I always thought it was kind of a dog for having such a big motor." "I'm not a mechanic-I guess I should have had someone go over it." "I'll bring it to you from now on." This guy had been limping this car around for 2 years on 5 or 6 cylinders with a carb that was FUBAR. I'm amazed it would even start. But he's happy as a clam now. So if your not a mechanic-have a competent one look at your pride and joy once in a while. A little maintenance goes a long way. Mastermind
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