The Ford Barn

38 coupe · 10-01-2025, 05:55 AM

Cylinders 2 and 1 respectively connect to different sides of the carburetor, with individual passages at the end of the engine. I doubt there is a carburetor problem since all other cylinders are firing, and I doubt a blockage since the compression was good. I too suspect an ignition problem, but diagnosing from the internet is chancy at best.
I had a similar situation once with a 37 Ford and ended up diagnosing it by pulling all eight plugs, reconnecting the plug wires with the plugs sitting on the heads where they would get a decent ground, turning the ignition on, and using a socket wrench to rotate the crank while watching for spark at each plug in order. In my case the point cam in the distributor was machined off center and the spark got very weak for cylinders 1 and 2 since the points were barely opening. I haven't seen or heard of similar before or since, Ford's manufacturing tolerances are usually pretty good.

10-01-2025, 05:55 AM	#14
38 coupe Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: South Texas Posts: 2,135	Re: Two dead cylinders on a 59ab Cylinders 2 and 1 respectively connect to different sides of the carburetor, with individual passages at the end of the engine. I doubt there is a carburetor problem since all other cylinders are firing, and I doubt a blockage since the compression was good. I too suspect an ignition problem, but diagnosing from the internet is chancy at best. I had a similar situation once with a 37 Ford and ended up diagnosing it by pulling all eight plugs, reconnecting the plug wires with the plugs sitting on the heads where they would get a decent ground, turning the ignition on, and using a socket wrench to rotate the crank while watching for spark at each plug in order. In my case the point cam in the distributor was machined off center and the spark got very weak for cylinders 1 and 2 since the points were barely opening. I haven't seen or heard of similar before or since, Ford's manufacturing tolerances are usually pretty good.