[Spridgets] Troubleshooting..

[Dean Hedin]

Last year before I buttoned up the Sprite for winter I took it for a usual
weekly ride.

About 4 miles from home I was waiting to get around a tree service crew.
As I passed them the car began to stumble an run really rough.  It felt like
it was running
on two cyclinders along with a pinging type of sound.

I limped home and parked the car for winter.  I figured that perhaps
something was wrong
with my home brewed MSD box.  I would deal with it in the Spring.

So today I'm out troubleshooting the thing.  I started by making a little
harness that allows
me to swap out the MSD box.  I figured this is a good thing to have anyway.
But the MSD box
was not the issue.  In fact spark is not the issue. Plenty of spark on every
cylinder even without 
the msd box.

It seemed like at idle, I could pull cylinders 1 & 2 spark plug boots and
not see an appreciable
drop in rpms. So I thought maybe something was wrong with the front SU carb.

I opened and drained it's float and removed the bell.  I then took canned
air and reverse blew 
through the main jet to make sure the tube was not clogged.  

That was'nt it.

Now I'm worried, so I pull the valve cover to make sure none of the rocker
adjuster had'nt worked 
loose.  No problem there...

So now I'm thinking either valves or head gasket.  But the failure was
sudden.  Has to be head gasket.

I Googled "symptoms of blown head gasket between cylinders" and I find
this...
http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&threa
d=102462

Which has a link to this video on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k1zNcXUq834

Which is almost EXACTLY what my Sprite sounds like right now.

Guess I need to finish up that 12G295 head in a hurry. Ordered all the bits.
Need to get this done 
before the 55th shindig...