Thread: RANT!! Why do they do it that way???

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My son and I just got finished with a rebuild on a F-O-R-D 351 Windsor engine. We did it pretty much by the seat of our britches, because we could not find a decent comprehensive manual to go by; the best I could come up with was one on a CD, and it was only very basic - stuff that I already knew. Well, anyway, we got the engine back in the car, all dressed out, and tried to start it; couldn't get the thing to start with any sort of regularity, or to stay running. It popped, a backfired, hisssed, caught fire, farted, and generally frustrated the hell out of me. I double checked the entire setup, valve lash, firing order, we rebuilt the carb, nothing worked. Last night, my son came home from work with a new haynes manual for all Ford engines, and I thought: "OK! Another generic bit.". But he was looking through it, and says to me: "Are you sure the firing order is right?"; "This shows that there are two different firing orders for the small block engine."

So, we changed the plug wires around, and, lo-and-behold, the thing fired right up as sweet as could be.. AUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!

WHY DON'T THEY USE ONE STANDARD FOR ALL ENGINES OF THE SAME TYPE??? AAAAHHHHHGGGGGHHHH!!!.

Rant over. Thanks for putting up with me.

Where you been hidin (fishing) Rrumbler ?

Yeah, Denny, now I know. This is a '69 Torino GT (Formal Coupe), obviously with the HO 351W. It has been done before, and came to my son dressed in Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold, Edelbrock 1406 carb, Mallory Unilite, headers, and stuff like that, so we had no factory stuff to refer to. But, we've got 'er, now; smooth running, with a nice deep growl to the pipes. When it fired off after we switched the plug wires around, I did a little dance (something not often seen, and quite frightening to behold), then cussed a long string, slugged the garage wall, laughed - just generally made an ass of myself. My son was grinning so big that I thought his face was going to split. Now to finish detailing it out, and getting it back on the street.

Southerner, that's where I've been, overseeing this F-O-R-D thing. I'm an old Chevy guy; this has been a whole new thing for me. That's why this firing order thing tripped me up; all Chevy V-8s had the same firing order, up until just a few years ago. At least, it seems to me that they changed when the Vortec came out - didn't they?

There is a very simple reason why ford needed different firing orders. Yu see, they screwed up on cranks when they were just making them for V8 engines, and they found some of them were wrong. So, they decided to cut their losses(which would be later repaid by mechanic insanity insurance) and make a different firing order. Either that, or they just diddnt want to be like GM

Rrumbler Had to laugh at your description of dancing,yelling,swearing and puching the walls cause I've been there myself many times. Glad you got it running OK.

Hey Rrumbler, being the dovout Blue Oval guy that I am, and being privvy to some of the secrets at Blue Oval.com, I can say irrefutably that the firing order was switched around just to P*** off the chebbie guys that mess with em !!!!!!! From your description of the dancing, yelling, and wall punching it is obvious the plot is a success !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tee Hee Hee

Thanks for all of the support, gents. I have to say, that if Ford did this sort of thing just to upset the proverbial apple cart, they did a good job. I figure there has to be a better reason than that, though. Sometimes engineers do things that the mechanics can't quite seem to fathom.

Now, back to work on my old Chevrolet - the engine is a 1981 vintage block, with '60s accessories on it. I know how to get along with it.