#4 plug sooty

My :v6: was acting really funny yesterday. I burned up the electric fuel pump last weekend and I replaced it yesterday. As I was "test" driving it , the wind blew my hat off. I stopped to get it. As I was walking back to the jeep, it was idling really rough and I think it was white smoke was coming out from the passenger side. I hope it wasn't blue smoke... When I got back to the garage, it was idling at 1000 RPM and I could watch the tach go down very slowly and it stopped at 400. If I tried adjusting the carb, it would try to stall. If I tried bringing up the idle, it would immediately shoot up to the 1000 mark. Last weekend it was running Ok, but not perfect. It was still backfiring out the exhaust. Maybe this has something to do with it? I pulled the passenger side plugs. 2&6 were a little rich. #4 was really back and sooty so it was burning oil or something. This has me concerned. I always knew something was up with this side, so maybe it finally let go. I also did a compression test on that side and all were between 120-125 psi. I'm so confused and frustrated with this thing! :? It is never running consistent.

Ideas?

I have another :v6: that I *think* is in good condition. The tranny blew up, so that is why it was parked. I'm going to see if it runs and I may swap it in.

 

Nate, what is the timing doing-does it wander around at any fixed speed? My first thoughts are that your timing chain/cam gear may be going south. It would affect both spark and valve timing which could produce all the symptoms you have.

 

After a good night's sleep and now that the moon and stars are all in line, I think I fixed it today. I messed around and messed around with it and wasn't gaining any ground. So I said the heck with it, I'm going to play around with the timing. I brought it down to 0° and voila! Problem went away! Then I took it for a test run and most of my backfiring went away. But then it stalled. I pop open the hood and gas is pouring into the carb. Problem #2, needs a fuel pressure regulator. That explains why the plug was all sooty and why it still backfires a bit.

Thanks Duffer for the idea. I guess time will only tell.