LxRacer

Hello everyone, I have a 89 Lx with a 92 motor stroked out to a 347 with 4 barrel carb.
I will try to make this as short as possible, i bought this car about a week ago. The first time i tried taking this home it wasnt getting gas. They claimed it was the relays for the fuel pump, well my fuel pump is in the back seat and doesnt look like they replaced either. What they replaced was the fuel line going to the carb. By the way its a electric pump. Now the car is home and i tried starting it the other day and it started but the died out just like it did before. Well, it's getting gas now because i can smell it, after it dont crank over i pump it like crazy[:@] so thats out. Im thinking its not getting spark so could it be distrib, spark plug wires. Im leaning more towards the distrib because of the hood scoop it has on it gets rain under the hood right on the distrib.[sm=badidea.gif] So if anyone could help me with this it would be great because i would love to get some enjoyment out of this car.

Dearborn5.0

hello and welcome...

347, good stuff

not too experienced myself, but here's a thought about your spark problem...

if you indeed have a carb, you might need a new distributor...(eventually)

on the efi engines, there is no vacumn/mechanical advance, it is computer controled.
perhaps if the carb conversion was done poorly, the computer in your car could be
trying to change your distributor advance with bad/no sensor signals....

the efi distributor has a rectangular grey computer module on it below the distributor
cap....it should have a wire harness connected to it or a plug recptical for wires....

i doubt if this is indeed occuring that it is messing up your ignition that much, but
its a thought....

of course, its best to check timing, your coil, wires, plugs etc first.

but you most likely already did that.....

roundman

Welcome to the forum LXracer. From what you describe, I would check the distributor cap to see if if has moisture in it which would kill the spark to the plugs and dry it out if you find it wet. If the engine was converted to a carburetor, it should not have a computer controlling anything on it, especially the distributor. Have you checked the fuel filters to see if they are dirty? There should be one in line upstream of the pump to protect the pump and possibly another one in line after the pump also. There is also a sintered bronze filter in the inlet of the carburetor that needs looking at too. I've never seen a fuel pump mounted in the back seat, this is dangerous to have it in there with you in the driver's seat plus most electric pumps need to be mounted below the gas tank level so the fuel can flow properly to the pump. I would strongly suggest you move the pump back under the floorboard where it should be and see if this helps with the fuel problem. I would also check the engine timing if you can get it running to see where it is set at.

LxRacer

Roundman, i was thinking it was the distrib because of all the rain we been getting. And even though i have it covered now who knows how long it was rained on before i bought it. So i plan on doing a check starting with the distrib, now i also have a msd ignition under the hood. Shouldnt this be covered up? It doesnt get wet until i lift the hood and like every other car it runs down the sides. And for the fuel pump i personally didnt think it was to smart to have it mounted in the backseat. However i have heard people having them mounted under the seat, but i have no backseats. So where would be i good place to mount the pump without to much trouble? I dont know if this matters but my car has straight hearders with 3' turndowns and i was thinking maybe thats why its mounted in the backseat due to the heat. Another question i have this motor is a 92 ho which im sure is a 302 block which was stroked to a 347 and blue printed. So my question is if something goes wrong with the motor the parts would be for a 92 347 ford mustang? And being its blue printed you cant just put stock parts in it right? So how would i buy parts or even have someone work on it if i dont know what has been done to it?

roundman

Your 347 is just a bored and stroked 302 (5.0) that has slightly larger diameter pistons and a stroker crank to push the displacement out to 347 cubic inches. (bore is now 4.030" vs stock of 4.000 and stroke is 3.400" vs stock of 3.000") Other than this, all the other parts are stock except for probably the camshaft. Blueprinting simply means that the machining of the block was done to exact factory design specs dimensionally so that the tolerances and fits between moving parts are exact. This means the main journals were probably align honed to get them all in the same centerline and the top of the block was machined square to the crank centerline to provide the same compression ratio in each cylinder. The cylinders were probably honed to final size using a deck plate also to simulate the heads being bolted to the block. If you ever need to replace the main or rod bearings, you will need to have the crankshaft journals measured to determine the exact bearing sizes since they may have been made different than stock, but this is a standard procedure when replacing bearings anyway.
The fuel pump should be mounted outside the car underneath it along the outside of the rear subframe so that it is lower than the gas tank so fuel will flow to it easily. Electric fuel pumps are not designed to suck the fuel out of the tank, the fuel has to flow to the pump then the pump can move it along to the carb. Having it inside the car with you is very dangerous in the event of an accident. It is never a good idea to let the distributor or ignition components get wet, so I would look at moving the MSD box inside the car to the passenger side floorboard where lots of people mount it. This will also keep it away from the heat of the engine under the hood.
Hope this helps you out some.

vfast

just a note....make sure all plug wires are were ther are supposed to be .....what does the dist/ look like