F-134 Carb questiions

I have a '61 CJ5 with the original 4cyl engine that had spent most of the past 8-10 years parked on my wife's grandfather's farm until January when I took possession and started messing around with it. Since January, I've replaced the gas tank (getting rid of the plastic marine one in the back), the entire fuel line, fuel pump, and most recently the starter which died a couple of weeks ago. Over the weekend was I was able to get it to idle on it's own for the first time. While it was running I noticed some black liquid bubbling around one of the spark plugs. At first I thought it might be oil so I turned off the engine and pulled the spark plug. It smelled like fuel and had more of a consistency of gas than oil despite it's color. I was able to easily wipe the plug clean with a rag and then tightened down the plug. I did the same with the rest of the plugs which were blackened as well. I replaced all the plugs in the spring and have run the engine maybe a total 20 minutes up until this weekend...mainly because I couldn't get it to continue running w/o keeping my foot on the gas. One other plug had the same issue with the black liquid and gas smell, but the other 2 seemed to mostly have carbon deposits on them. Cleaning the plugs seemed to help the engine idle a bit smoother, but it's still rather rough, although I really have no frame of reference regarding how it should run. It does smoke when I rev it up and it did backfire once as well. When idling the smoke is minimal.

Now to my questions:

1. What might the gas (I think) on the plug mean? Would that just be a result of my not tightening it down enough or would that indicate some deeper engine issue? After cleaning and tightening each plug, I no longer saw any more of the black liquid bubbling up. The engine was rebuilt in '99 and likely has had few miles put on it between then and now.....but as I mentioned previously, it sat idle for many years until recently.

2. I also am seeing some gas leaking down the base of the carburetor....not a ton, but enough to be noticed so I'm thinking it might make sense to rebuild it. Would that be a project that someone with limited car repair experience can tackle or is it a more advanced task that I should outsource? I'm an IT guy with fairly good troubleshooting skills but lack much car knowledge aside from what I've learned over the last few months.

In looking at the ID tag on the carb, it's a Rochester model designed for 60-62 Chevy & GMC Truck according to the link below (vs the Carter and Solex brands). Would that make sense?

http://www.carburetion.com/CarbNumber.asp?Number=7015013


Thanks

Dave

 

1) Actual gasoline being on the spark plug must indicate that there is no spark getting to that particular cylinder.
The only possible causes will be the distributor cap, the spark plug cable or the spark plug itself.

2) While the Rochester 2G (2 barrel) used on D-225 V-6 is one of the best carburetors ever produced the Rochester B (single barrel) is one of the worst carburetors ever produced.

I suggest that you get a proper Carter YF 938S, SA, SC, or SD.

 

Thanks, Ken.

 

I am actually having the exact same problems you are describing. Two plugs are gas covered, two others are carbon deposited, and it will only run well for the first ~5-10 miles on new plugs and it hates to idle. I am going to go at it this weekend and try to figure it out, I'll tell you what I come up with.

 

The best thing for you to do is first check to make sure that the primary ignition is normal.

Remove the distributor cap.
Remove the coil wire at the distributor cap.
Turn ignition on.
Manually open and close the breaker while holding the coil wire 1/8" away from ground.
It should have strong spark.
If you get strong spark its most likely the cable or possibly the cap.
If you crank or run it at night in darkness you can readily see if the cap is cracked.

If the spark is very weak then figure that the primary ignition system needs attention.

 

"holding the coil wire 18" away from ground"

18"? You hold it, I'll watch...

 

Yeah 18" is too far out man.
18" is a great way to blow your coil.
I decide to put a slash / in between.

 

To the Original Poster,

I replaced my Coil, Distributor Cap, Points, Condensor, and overall cleaned the entire distributor. It now idles like a champ. I have not set the timing yet, however the point gap is currently set at .017" which seems to be enough to get it to idle and what not. I unfortunately am not able to rev the vehicle anymore without it dying. I will set the timing and dwell angle tomorrow and I will report what I find.

Dan