how often should the carbon be cleaned from the head?

[kwisor]

hello
on my 23 roadster. i had a rebuilt motor i put in about 10 years ago. i drive the car alot and have the truefire eletronic system on it. i pulled my plugs yesterday to clean them and there was carbon on all 4 plugs the reason i did this was the car has started to backfire and i have lost power. it will idle fine and start fine looks like i am getting good fire at all four cyl. i also think i may need to get another rebuilt carbuator it has been 10 years since it was replaced also. any ideas would help
kevin
1923 model t roadster p/u
1930 model a tudor

[redmodelt]

Is it oily or dry? If oily might be pumping oil past the rings or valves. If it's dry you are running to rich and need to back off the spray needle. Unless there is a lot of slop in the throttle shaft there is not much to repair on the carbs. Take the bowl off and clean it out just for kicks. If the bottom gasket is bad, just go to your local hardware store and look in the plumbing gaskets for one that will fit. If it's other wise working good leave it alone.

[kwisor]

thank you for the reply the carbon is dry and not much slop in the throttle shaft i did take carb apart the bottom in the bowl the part the lower jet screws into is pitted i cked for gaskit leaks at the manafolds could not find any so not sure why it stated to do this i wish i knew more about how to fix motors i can fix and paint the body but not much on motors
kevin
1923 model t roadster p/u
1930 model a

[Royce P]

If the car is backfiring and losing power you have ignition system problems. Check your coil box connections, wiring from the timer to the coil box, and then try a regular set of coils and timer which are ultimately more reliable and cheaper than a True Fire.

Likely the True Fire is the source of the problem. When the coil units get weak one of the symptoms is what I like to call "shooting ducks" because the True Fire has each coil firing two cylinders. When it starts getting weak it will only occasionally have enough power to fire the plugs. The super rich unfired mixture in the exhaust gets fired with a "bang" when it does what it should have been doing before it started to fail.

Originally Posted by kwisor

hello
on my 23 roadster. i had a rebuilt motor i put in about 10 years ago. i drive the car alot and have the truefire eletronic system on it. i pulled my plugs yesterday to clean them and there was carbon on all 4 plugs the reason i did this was the car has started to backfire and i have lost power. it will idle fine and start fine looks like i am getting good fire at all four cyl. i also think i may need to get another rebuilt carbuator it has been 10 years since it was replaced also. any ideas would help
kevin
1923 model t roadster p/u
1930 model a tudor

[Ed in Maine]

One of the nice things about a Model T is that they are not complicated and easy to work on. I agree with Royce. Go back to the standard equipment which is all very well documented. Get the books on the carb and electrical systems and you will soon be an expert. Over the years I have seen so many articles at the Ford Barn where owners try to make the T & A more modern with new accessories only to create all new problems. Ed

[Willie in Houston]

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Taking the cylinder head off and cleaning carbon was something done in the early days of Model T.
The very poor quality gas was supposed to be the cause of the problem. Our current gas should not be causing a carbon build up.

[kwisor]

hello
got to work on the t today and what i found was the #1 cycl was the one backfiring when i put the motor in 10 years ago i rebuilt the coil box with the plastic intstead of the wood and the conections seened loose i fixed that and replaced the spark plug wires becouse thay have been on there for 10 years also and she fired right up and runs great again thanks for all the segestions
kevin
1923 model t roaster p/u
1930 model a tudor