Until you said "Symptoms of running rich," I would have guessed at a
major vacuum leak. Try spraying carb cleaner around anyway. Try it at
all the gaskets between the carbs, manifold, and engine. Mine sucked
a gasket in, deforming it to the point where it became a leak.
Have you verified the float levels in the float bowls? That shouldn't
cause as radical a problem as you describe, but you never know. In fact,
turn on the ignition, lift the carb pistons, and look to make sure you're
not pumping gas into the carbs. You could have a float that doesn't.
Check the engine out in the dark, to see if you're getting arcing
anywhere. You could be getting inadequate spark. Check the dizzy cap
and rotor for signs of arc traces. I sometimes take the
cap, rotor, wires, and soap them up and scrub them, to get the grime
off that might cause arcing. You'd probably have backfiring in this case...
Check your plugs to see if any cylinder in particular is having trouble.
You might be running on three or two. You might want to take out the plugs,
take off the valve cover, and crank the engine to make sure you don't have
a valve sticking.
Check the ignition wires for internal arcing, especially #1. I switched to
silicon/graphite resistor wires to try to reduce radio noise, but the
wire cores kept burning at the distributor. I switched back to copper cores.
Good luck! Keep us informed of your progress. Have a homebrew if you
can get it!
************************************************************************
*Philippe Tusler - Mission Viejo, CA | "MILOU" '57 MGA Roadster *
*A-Mail: <TUSLER@MP050> | "TINTIN" '66 MG/MGB-GT *
*InterNet: TUSLER@MP050.MV.unisys.com | "N/A" '88 ISUZU Trooper*
************************************************************************
|