OK guys, here're the symptoms:

1. Really poor gas mileage (like half what it used to be)

2. Much worse acceleration than it should have in 4th and 5th gears (and yep, I know 22R's are underpowered to begin with, but this is way out of range even for 22R). If I stomp on the gas in 5th, the engine just hums really loudly like it's trying really hard, but no power is transferred to the drive train.

3. A lot of white smoke on start up.

4. It has a Weber 32/36 DGEV carb on it.


The only things that pop into my head are a leak in the intake manifold or a problem with the carburetor, but I pretty much don't know my *ss from a hole in the ground when it comes to stuff like this. Any ideas or suggestions from your experienced selves would be much appreciated!

thanks,
Randy

 

If there is a lot of white smoke, you could have a blown head gasket. That would also cause a loss in power. Some white smoke when it is cold is normal because of steam in the exhaust. I would doubt it is a vacuum leak because I had a big vacuum leak in my 4x2 and it idled bad but did not seen to make any difference in power. A carburetor that is way out of adjustment would cause low power and bad mileage. Also check the timing and make sure that the distributor can advance properly.

 

Sounds like you have a blown headgasket. I would suggest a compression check to ensure the engine is healthy before tweaking or tuning anything.

Frank

 

thanks for the advice, guys. I'll post an update after I cross a few things off the list (like compression, etc.). Seems like this is a pretty common occurrence with old 22R's.