I Give Up 2x4's aint worth it.

[coloradodave]

I agree with lewtot. Throwing parts at it (expensive ones at that) probably is not going to help your situation. Sounds like some basic trouble shooting might help. I'd start with a compression test, initial and total timing and plug color check. The fact that the pistons will close the plug gap indicates to me that you've got a pretty high compression motor and then it would follow that the cam might be too big for street application and give you the driveability problems you're seeing. I would pull the front off the motor and read the cam numbers as well as beg/borrow a mini flex cam to see the piston tops and see if you can determine just what you're dealing with. As to the intake gaskets, you can determine if they're leaking by spraying some carb cleaner around the ports while it's running and see if the RPM changes. If they're leaking on the valley side you'll know it by the blue cloud following you down the road, as well as oil fouled plugs. Let us know what you find. Pictures of your set-up would be helpful.

 

[ilm65]

71RR- You might want to have a sharp carb guy or racer that knows his/her stuff check out your set-up. I run a 440 with max wedge heads and crossram (Edelbrock 600 cfm AFBs) on the street without any problems, other than an affinity for gas stations (it never has seen one it didn't want to make friends with). My compression ratio is 10:1 in order to run pump gas (91 octane in CA). Good luck which ever way you go.

I agree with coloradodave; I'm running this 440 with Eddy 84cc heads, 10:1 KB pistons and the A&A crossram designed for the 440 heads with two Eddy 600's--behaves beautifully in traffic--never loads up; absolutely no problems.

 

[lewtot184]

I agree with coloradodave; I'm running this 440 with Eddy 84cc heads, 10:1 KB pistons and the A&A crossram designed for the 440 heads with two Eddy 600's--behaves beautifully in traffic--never loads up; absolutely no problems.

if that car drives as good as it looks, you've got a real sweetheart!

 

[71RR]

Wow, that is one nice exposed under hood. Guys, I think I will find a nice ... or nicer day and begin peeling her apart. I do need to basically start from scratch and know what I have got. They rolled off of the assembly line running, so mine should. She was built to sell at Barrett Jackson, and did. Thing about it is, she has never run. Down she comes and I will let you know in time what she has in her. I may need to go back with fat head gaskets to lessen the comp. Thanks for the motivation to know that surgery is needed. I'll get back to you.

 

[71RR]

Something else that crossed my mind is that the passenger side manifold has burned the paint off of the valve cover where they are so close anyway. A harley I had use to have issues with heat if it was running too lean. Could this be something that I might get schooled in metering rods for these carter AFB / Edelbrock carbs and try another size rods in them first? The plugs are kind of grey now.

 

[lewtot184]

look for a number on your carbs to find out what they are. from there you can find out what they're suppose to have in them. compare that to what rods and jets are in the carbs now. this will give you a baseline to go from.

 

[coloradodave]

ILM65; Wow, nice engine compartment! Plymouth, MI? Really? How cool is that.
71RR; If you Google "Tuning AFB carbs" you'll come up with a wealth of knowledge about rods, jets, float levels, etc. for the carbs you have. The numbers are stamped on the front base of the carb, usually 4 numbers and a letter. Particularly helpful is the "Carter AFB selection and tuning guidelines" by Federal Mogul Tech Education Center. Yes, running lean can cause too much heat in the exhaust, but so can being too far retarded and an assortment of other things. Take a few pictures of the top of the motor without air cleaners as well as the base of the carbs.

 

[62MAX]

I,m happy with mine.

 

[71RR]

I am thinking of going hydraulic cam and lifters when I start back, no matter what I find in her for a cam. What is a good streetable all around cam to look at?

 

[moparsteve636]

Mopar perf.484-284 is a good all around hyd.cam!Get much bigger and you'll run into vacuum issues if you have power brakes!

 

[uk-maxie]

Another vote for sticking with the max wedge set up, if you have the option!

We had our 'original' 426 MW (original as in complete MW engine, but not original to the car unfortunately) completely rebuilt soon after we got the car, and kept it to as near to stock specs as poss, but with slightly lower compression (10.2:1) and a hydraulic cam of similar spec to the original (.509).

Never had a problem in traffic, even when we went on a round-London 'tunnel-run' a few years ago, which ended up as a bumper-to-bumper cruise for much of the time thru the centre of London :icon_mad:

Only trade-off as far as on the street performance is concerned, as far as I've noticed, is you lose a bit of bottom-end acceleration compared to a single carb set-up. Bit I'm happy with that given the benefits of the look of the 2x4 MW when you pop the hood :icon_salut:

 

[Rick62]

My Max Wedge copy is a street car. Other than it's a little cold-blooded until it gets warmed up, it's fine. No coughing or sputtering. 300 degree .528 lift cam. 10.5 compression.

 

[Rick62]

2 X 4's On the Street

This is my other 2X 4 car. Again, no coughing or sputtering. It ran decent with the carbs out of the box before I tuned them. Most likely you have some other problems. It runs well at idle even in hot weather with the a/c on.

 

[71RR]

Well, I did it. I pulled the wedge down and found a cam with some purple on it and the number 220026 on the back of the cam. She also had a degreeable timing chain that was set at +2 degrees. Another question, and this is probable a duuh, but do some solid lifters have c clips in them like hydrolics do, or are my, 'presumed solid lifters' really hydrolic? It has adjustable Crane rockers also. Also a very thin metal head gasket that I can feel in the valley. Any body need any more info, or can you advise about the degreed cam and would that affect putting around town? Thanks.

 

[coloradodave]

The # doesn't compute with me. Were there any numbers on the front face of the cam or casting numbers on the shaft? Did you check to see if there was any clearance between the rocker arm tips and the valve stem when any given cylinder was at Top Dead Center (TDC) on the compression stroke before pulling the cam? And yes, solid lifters can have a snap ring to retain the pushrod cup.
As to the shim head gasket it may have been the cheapest or they may have wanted to keep the compression as high as possible. What number spark plugs were in the motor?

 

[Meep-Meep]

I take it you are running the Max Wedge cross ram? I ran one years ago with two Holley 600 DP's (what I had lying around) and it ran just fine. But I will also say that if you don't seal the screw in intake bolt plugs properly you will have an avalanche of vacuum leaks!! I believe there are six total. You can use an o-ring or some flat rubber gasket to seal them. And those are 7 1/4" rear end oil fill plugs if you loose one.