Hello, well the Ford HEI (Duraspark I red grommet) came in and well I noticed the module was already installed. This was from Rock Auto. The terminals had scratches and the grease was pushed back in the connecter. Great.....

So for those who do not know, there are several flavours of Fords Duraspark. The most common in the low energy ignition blue grommet module. There's a yellow, brown and white of which are also low energy ignitions. The red one is the only high energy ignition Duraspark Ford made. However it requires (for a hot spark) a low impedance coil and there is no resistor wire. All key points to this system. The coil looks like the regular points or blue grommet Duraspark coil but it is notably heavier. Also the module is heavier than the more common one.

I couldn't find a reproduction socket for the red grommet Duraspark module. The blue one is keyed differently. So I ground off the key and labeled it with paint.

The other connector fits fine.

Aside from the key on the plug being different Ford also switch around two of the wires so if anyone snipped off the key it still wouldn't work without flipping the wires.

Long story short, the module was defective. (sigh) I ordered another one through O'Reillys and waited a day as no one stocks these rare and expensive units and sure enough when I picked it up I opened it right there and noticed it too had been installed and told them. They said I can return it if it doesn't work. Well surprise surprise it was dead as well. It doesn't take to much deduction to figure out what was going on. Lazy jerks have a car that won't start with no spark, they automatically assume it's the electronics and buy a new module, when in reality the coil is shorted and blows the module. So they plug it in, the car still doesn't start or run for very long and then return it for the next guy. This pisses me off. Two of them just like this.

I got fed up waiting for these esoteric expensive modules and just bought an off the shelf blue grommet low energy module, then switched the old higher impedance coil back in, reversed the wires in the harness and added the resistance wire and it started right up. I mean it's a pity as I wanted to see how well the Ford HEI system actually worked, but these used/defective parts are beyond ridiculous.

For those wondering what the blue grommet module actually looks like on the inside. Wait no more.

This is the guts of a low energy Duraspark II module. This is from a friends car that popped two of these. Funny thing is the car ran just fine but would blow these after a short time running. Turns out the coil was bad as the primary had shorted windings and was drawing more current even with the resistance wire in place. Just takes longer to pop.

Back side.

Blew the trace for the coil.

One of the tell tale signs of a failing coil or soon to fail coil is no oil slosh when you shake it. If there's little or no oil slosh, even if it still works, just toss it right in the scrap bin and buy a new one. Without the oil for cooling, the coils overheat, the insulation fails and you get shorted turns. On the primary you'll never see it with a regular ohm meter either especially if it's still running.

Then the XL developed yet another problem. It would start just fine and if cold would just die if you didn't hold the accelerator a bit. Then when it was warmed up (Cold lamp off) it would idle smooth. However if you put it in gear it would instantly die. It would start right back up and idle smooth, put it in gear and it just die. Rinse and repeat.

This one had me going. I went through the carb again and it was so clean I'd eat off the interior if it wasn't holding toxic fuel. All the passages were spotless. Put it all back together and same thing; idle, put it in gear and just quit. Starts right back up again and idles smoothly no misses, just purring.

Last resort after checking everything else I guess I'll doing a compression check, well the first plug I pulled looks like

I've seen dumpster fires burn cleaner.

I did a compression check and it was 125 PSI at 6500 ft MSL. Not good. The Z code 390 (Fords high compression option) in the parts car '68 LTD cranks at 180 PSI. Then I removed the other plugs.

The rest of the miscreants. Um yeah stick a fork in that engine, because it's done. The one really unnerving plug is the perfectly white cone one. It looks almost steamed cleaned. And by steam cleaned I mean coolant leaking into the cylinder clean. My good friend reminded me to tighten the intake bolts and holy crap I dunno who put those in, but those are beyond tight. I couldn't tighten or loosen all but one. I was afraid of snapping the bolts off in the head trying to unloosen them, they are frozen in the head.

The plan for now is to extract the Z code 390 out of the parts car '68 LTD and see if that's a candidate for a "backyard" rebuild as I just need an engine for a year or two till I can build another proper 390 like I did on both 1966 cars.

I did put new plugs in this worn out old turd and it did fix the die in gear problem and it actually runs fine.... well for now.