OK -- Here's what is going on with my Midget.
You may recall that I blew the head gasket and had a cracked head, and went
through all that crap with Federal Express losing the head, then finding one
through a fellow lister. I had that head boiled out, magnafluxed, and
resurfaced at a machine shop. Got it all back together last week, everything
torqued to specs, and started it up. Sounded pretty good. Took it out for
a drive around the neighborhood and it was running fair, not great, then
noticed that the temp guage was running up--overheating. I drove it back
home, popped the bonnet, and unscrewed the radiator pressure cap to check the
coolant level. Anti-freeze/coolant gushed out forcefully, of course. I
found that the dipstick had water in the new oil, probably from the previous
problem, so I drained out the new water-laden oil, pulled the pan and cleaned
it completely out, and wiped down the rods and internals best I could.
Refilled with fresh oil and new filter and new coolant. Reset the timing--I
think it was a little too far advanced, and refilled the coolant level.
Started it up and it stayed cool. Drove it to work the next day--did pretty
good--still running fair, but not great. The choke lever dropped off the
butterflies, so I epoxied it back on that evening.
Next morning hopped in and started it up. Started for work. As I drove, I
noted smoke coming from the rear of the car, not from the tailpipe, but it
appeared to be generally and lightly coming from under the car. Started
running roughly at stoplights at idle. Died a couple of times but restarted
easily. I turned around and drove it back home. It never overheated--ran
cool all the time. I pulled into the driveway and let it idle for a bit,
then when I hit the accelerator to rev the engine, A couple of puffs of
whitish smoke or vapor came from the tailpipe, then stopped. I replaced one
ignition wire when I found it was shorting. That improved the idle a little,
but adjusting the mixture screw on the Weber downdraft carb didn't seem to
affect the roughness of the idle. I shut the engine down at that point. Now
I noted that there is copious amounts of oil dripping quickly from the
transmission. Hard to tell where it is coming from because everything under
the car is coated with oil and dripping. Have not had time to look further
into it. But here are the steps I am going to do tomorrow to begin checking
out the cause of this poor running:
1. Check the spark plugs for problemmatic deposits, wetness, or color.
2. Check the dipstick for water and oil loss, if any.
3. Do a dry then wet compression check. Brand new head gasket though, plus
a freshly milled head.
4. Check the freshly filled tranny to see whether the leak is coming from
it, by checking the oil level. It was filled just two weeks ago.
Anybody have any other suggestions on anything else to check out, please let
me know. Thanks!
--David C.
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