The decision to finally drop the 74’s engine and begin tearing it down for rebuild was slow in coming, but to some degree actually started on August 16, 2018 when I started having some of the issues with it failing to run. This started out of nowhere, as it started reliably throughout 2017 and most of 2018. Throughout all of this I discovered how rotten the insides where of the original fuel tank, and subsequently realized this had been the state from before I got it and the carb was no doubt a mess too.
I had bought a rebuild kit and a full gallon of carb “dip” cleaner in 2017 but the car had been running well enough that I didn’t feel the need to do anything with it at the time. I pulled the original carb off. It actually had the original smog emissions dashpot mechanism still on it and obviously, had not been rebuilt in a very long time, if it had ever been rebuilt before.
It came apart ok, but I discovered some damaged parts, not to mention a large amount of varnish in the bowl. It definitely had been a very long time since it as cleaned.
I got it all reassembled with new parts and diaphragms, and yet the car still would not run reliably. Definitely not enough for me to even attempt to dial in the carb properly.
By this time, I had already committed to rebuilding this car so on August 24, 2018 I began the slow methodical removal of some of the top parts, documenting everything along the way.
Now I know one of the things more people in many states without emissions testing do is just rip out old 70’s era anti-smog parts of the engines. These really started appearing in 1974 and this engine still had not only the carb dashpot on it, but it also had the original EGR valve, EGR-modded intake manifold, and the EGR-modded tin. It no longer had an EGR filter, and I could tell from under the car that someone had just cut it off.
My original plans were to rebuild the engine 100% stock, including restoring all of the EGR elements to it. (I’m often all about keeping things as stock as possible for the given model year.) These plans kind of hit a snag when I started removing the EGR assembly and discovered that not only did a previous owner cut off the EGR filter under the car, they had also forced a metal plug into the the EGR intake portion of the mount that is on the 74’s intake manifold. I realized then that there would be problems, and of course, it wasn’t too long after discovering this that I decided I wanted to experiment with dual carbs and more or less threw out my plans to restore it to original stock condition.
The remove of the engine would also allow me to finally see the full condition of the engine and assorted parts that are not easily inspected. The rear tins were filthy and pretty corroded but totally salvageable. The engine seals to the body where totally shot, no doubt being the originals.
With some minor assistance from my other half, I was able to quickly unbolt and drop the engine off the transmission.
I expected it to be dirty, but I really didn’t forsee how much neglect it truly had seen over the last decade or so.