My 74 'B has been idle most of the winter. The engine has "only" 80,000
miles since the last rebuild. For the last three weeks the rear end has been
blocked up while I installed new rear springs and awaited the delivery of a
fuel tank I was replacing. Today the tank arrived and was installed.
After about 10 minutes driving around enjoying the new springs and
non-leaking fuel tank, the engine started running rougher and rougher as it
warmed up, and finally stalled. After about half an hour cooling it finally
restarted and I was able to get home just before it quit again. The first
thing I checked were the plugs - all four were severly fouled. After
changing the plugs they promptly fouled again (black soot) after about 5-10
minutes. Quite a bit a blue smoke before stalling.
At first I thought I might have contaminated fuel since this was the first
drive after the fuel tank replacement, but that should have nothing to do
with temperature. Now I'm thinking the cylinder head gasket has failed due
to age (10 years) and/or lack of use this past winter.
So... what's the consensus? Remove the cylinder head and replace the gasket,
or is this a symptom of something more serious?
Thanks,
Ken, Lincoln City, Oregon
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