Thread: 51 Moredoor

Tweet

That's right, Dave! I'm on vacation this week in Myrtle Beach with my in laws. The ocean is beautiful and they are good people but sitting around for a week is not for me; I'm bored out of my skull and its only been four days. My wife loves it so I'm doing it for her since she was gracious enough to let me run up to Ohio for two days and pick up this car. I need my man cave!

This thing is having a weird ignition issue. I'll sit there and idle great for about 10 minutes, then it starts stumbling, dies, and will not restart until it cools down a bit. I think I have it tracked down to an ignition issue; there is a Pertronix ignition in it. I talked to the Pertronix rep, he's coming to the same conclusion. I know a lot of guys swear by these but I had always steered away from them because when you have an issue, there's no local parts source. So I bought a rebuilt slant six distributor and ignition module from ORiely's and will give the retrofit a shot. I did Langdons HEI on the last flathead and it worked well but this is about half the cost and i can use the new plug wires that are on the car rather than buying an HEI set. We've got one of our bigger annual shows Saturday so im hoping to have it done by then.

Heat soak was my first impression: I was thinking coil, but a solid state component is more likely.

It could be solid state though in most cases they either work or they don't. I believe I'd try a new coil as your problem is identical to a problem i once had with the Mustang and it was the coil breaking down as it got hotter.

That's what i thought, too. Tried a coil and a ballast resistor but no change.

Originally Posted by falconvan

That's what i thought, too. Tried a coil and a ballast resistor but no change.

Then I would suspect that the module is bad. IMHO, there is a bad or cold solder connection in the module and as it heats up it it opens the electrical path and after it cools back down it will work until it heats up again. You might send it back to Petronix and have them analyze the unit and they should replace it if in fact it's defective.

Thanks, I might give that a try.

Fixed! The slant six sparker did the trick!

".....Fixed! The slant six sparker did the trick......"

Good to hear. How much work was it to retrofit?

By the way I was sorry to see the moredoor go away, but I always had a soft spot for the coupes.



.

It was really easy,Mike. Only about 2 hrs work. You just swap the flattie's distributor center shaft into the slant six housing, take .030 off the lower collar, and from there it's a direct bolt in. I had to hang a regular Mopar ignition module on the firewall and run a few wires but the whole thing with a new module and an ORiely's rebuilt distributor was right at $100.
I really liked the 51, too, but this was hard to pass up. If all goes as planned this will be getting an injected 5.9 Magnum with a 5 speed, 8.8 rear, and a rear mounted turbo.

I drove the car to our local July 4th show last weekend; I was surprised by how many people had never seen a business coupe before. Ran really smooth but it definitely needs two more cylinders and about 300 more HP! I started looking up info on the 5.9 Magnum FI swap; it looks like that's the way its going this winter. Shiney paint will have to wait.

I'm bad for changing my mind and this idea may get me tossed out of every hot rod site I'm on. I took the car up to one of our local shows and the guy a few spaces down from me had a 46 Chevy street rod with a really cool looking drivetrain setup. He had a 3.2 Taurus SHO motor turned front ways with a Ranger 5 speed behind it. Very slick looking, sounded great, and the guy loved it. I have the same motor sitting in my garage that I was going to use for another project but its got me thinking. I've got a Mopar with a Chevy engine, just did a Mopar with a Mopar engine, why not try one with a Ford? Lo and behold, there's another one in September's Street Rodder, this one in a 36 Ford.

Sounds like a pretty slick idea to me.

Thanks, man. I have a thread on this on the HAMB but if posted that idea I think I'd have a group of angry villagers with torches at my doorstep.

Originally Posted by falconvan

Thanks, man. I have a thread on this on the HAMB but if posted that idea I think I'd have a group of angry villagers with torches at my doorstep.

Well I also think that it's a smoking hot idea! I've had it in the back of my head for a few years.. when I saw you're other thread about the Taurus, I was hoping you'd re-think that idea and now?!?!?!?! Woo Hoo!!! rofl...