Noel.....Please STOP IT! You're making me feel older and older 😀. But, I agree with everything you've said. My first car was a chopped 1951 Mercury Monterey. Worst cluster gear in the history of transmissions. I had to change it so often I think I could have rebuilt that gearbox blind-folded.....Doug

You're my kinda guy Rob. God, I wish I still had the 1951 Mercury. The last I ever saw of it was in 1963. The body had been scrapped and the engine was installed in a 1929 Model A Ford. Quite an engine that old flathead. Edelbrock 10:1 heads. Three Stromberg 97's on an Edelbrock manifold. All I remember about the pistons is that they were really expensive. Built that sucker my self. The young guys today have no idea what it was like in the '50's...the true age of the hot rod.

Got rid of the Renault!  My dad sold it to the son of a guy he worked with for $85.  I bought a 1967 Yammerhammer twinjet 100 to ride to school.  Sold that just before enlisting in the Navy.

 

Artistic license Sue.  And as  far as mountain driving goes how about vapor locks?

Noel

 

9 hours ago, n4gix said:

Having to stop short of climbing the Rocky Mountains to change out the jets on your carburetor to compensate for the higher altitude, then changing them out again once on the other side! Such fun!!!

Yep!  Those of us who live in the high country do NOT miss carbs AT ALL!😀

Yes, I knew how to work on them - good thing because I HAD to.

Scott

Edited February 3, 20206 yr by tttocs

23 minutes ago, tttocs said:

Yep!  Those of us who live in the high country do NOT miss carbs AT ALL!😀

Yes, I knew how to work on them - good thing because I HAD to.

Scott

Well, see, if you switched that abominable, sacrilegious Cubs logo out for a proper Cardinals one, you might get that ol air-fuel mixture correct every time.  👍

Funny.  I lived in Denver for over 20 years and went into the high country very frequently.  Skiing in the winter and fly fishing and back packing in the Summer.  I never had to change out the jets on my carb going from a mile high to the trailhead over 12,000ft to hike up Gray's Peak (14,278).  Driven to the top of Mt Evans (14,265)  and Pikes Peak (14,115) several times.  Notice a loss of power up there but never had to change or adjust anything on the engine.  The first time I drove up to the top of Pikes Peak was in a 1965 Ford Station Wagon.  I guess they call those SUVs now.

Noel

Edited February 3, 20206 yr by birdguy
Add elevations...

That's because you being from that area, had the proper jets in the Carb. Not us Flat Landers.

Correct! My parents and I drove many times from Miami, Florida to San Francisco and dad had to change out the jets four times on each trip. It was no different when we eventually moved to Oklahoma City and travelled west to visit family in CA, OR, and WA.

Dad was always careful to pack spare jets (both normal and high-altitude) as well as gaskets just in case.

Even fuel injected vehicles can have trouble there.   I have an older (1st Generation, 1991-1994) Ford Explorer, and it has noticeably less power driving through the Rockies (Berthoud Pass, or Loveland Pass etc.) and in fact can only do 50 mph flat-out up near the Eisenhower Tunnel.

I suspect another issue is that newer OBD-II/EEC-V PCM's can adapt more quickly to less O2 but the older EEC-IV computers cannot.  And the fact that the 1st gen explorers are underpowered to begin with.

20 hours ago, Mace said:

Well, see, if you switched that abominable, sacrilegious Cubs logo out for a proper Cardinals one, you might get that ol air-fuel mixture correct every time.  👍

Must be working pretty well - my air-fuel mixtures are spot on these days. 😬

 

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

Notice a loss of power up there but never had to change or adjust anything on the engine.

Nope, I didn't generally re-jet either - but you didn't have to be a combustion engineer to know that the mixture was wonky with large changes of altitude.  The last 4x4 I had that wasn't FI was a 1974 Ford Bronco.  Loved that thing, but oh my good dog how it would load up at high altitude, especially at odd lean angles or when bouncing off rocks thanks to the float bouncing around causing raw fuel to get dumped down the carb throat.  You could very obviously smell all the un-burned fuel.  And yes, there were times when I had to disassemble the float chamber somewhere out in the middle of nowhere to unstick a jammed float.

I'll stand by my statement that electronic FI is the best thing to ever happen for high altitude driving, and especially backcountry driving in rough terrain.  Carburetors are Rube Goldberg devices that I do not miss.

Scott - Colorado resident since 1971  (and a Cubs fan for life!)

On 2/2/2020 at 4:06 PM, Rob_Ainscough said:

Wow, aren't flatheads hugely sought-after by collectors and restoration shops?  Shame you don't still have it.

Cheers, Rob.

 

Indeed. If it's a completly stock rebuild it could be worth USD$6000-8000. I rebuilt a lot of flatheads back in the 50's. I didn't do the machine work but I did all the assembly and installation. Those were the days.................

On 2/2/2020 at 1:28 PM, n4gix said:

Having to stop short of climbing the Rocky Mountains to change out the jets on your carburetor to compensate for the higher altitude, then changing them out again once on the other side! Such fun!!!

Wow... can  I ever relate to that. 50-some years ago I did a lot of sports car rallying in the California Sierras. Starting from Sacramento or Modesto and then heading up into the mountains toward Lake Tahoe. Once we got to 8000+ feet we'd stop and re-jet the carb. Those days are long gone now but the memories linger on................

Edited February 4, 20206 yr by W2DR
kant spel..........................