rich running

[d rock]

so, my 1990 Acty has been running rich as of late and was idling very rough. new plugs ended up becoming fouled very quickly, swapped some plug wires over and still running rough/rich. must be down to the carb? am i going in the right direction? anyone pull an Acty carb?
also, my oil ended up being full of sludge( 2000km after oil change)- i'm assuming this is due to finally being driven regularily and she's cleaning herself out.

[TetsuKuma]

First thing I would do is make sure the choke system is functional and working.
Pull off the air cleaner hose to get a visual on the carb intake area. Start it up and watch the choke lever. It should be almost closed (about 4-5mm crack from being totally closed) and then slowly open as the truck runs. As I remember it takes about 1-1.5 minutes to fully open if it uses the same mechanism as a Mitsibushi carb. If so the coolant temp then lowers the idle speed and idle becomes normal speed.
If it passes this test then I would suspect other issues. It could be that the cleaning out is also dumping lots of crud into the head area in which case you may have some leakage in the valve guides which causes this. How many miles on the engine? Any oil burning? You could do a compression check to see what the results are for additional info. How is the timimg?

[d rock]

compression test was done and OK. no oil burning at all. i do have nice clean cyl walls after the over fueling gave it a nice engine flush. they are swapping the distributor over from another Acty today to see what that does. it weird that its being such a pain to trouble shoot as its such a simple carb set up. took it for a run yesterday and it was really hurting for power and you could almost watch the fuel gauge needle going down. the prob has got to be with that dang CARB!! all i want for Christmas is an english Manual :)

[TetsuKuma]

How is the air cleaner element? New? It will be interesting to see if swapping out the carb helps. Maybe it is a flooding carb (or at least one that the float is all messed up in!) Good luck d rock!

[BLES]

OK. I didn't post the other day when I first saw this 'cause usually people freak out and cry "snake oil" when I say this but here goes:

Go to your local NAPA store (Canada) and buy a can of Seafoam. It'll likely retail about $15 and it's not a big can. Follow the directions on the can (dump some in the carb throat or else use a vacuum line to ingest it, then dump the rest of the can in your tank). After sitting a few minutes, take it for a drive - don't spare the "loud pedal" and don't be near the tail pipe as it will belch smoke and smell awful.

Let me know what happens. Worst case you're out about $15 and you've cleaned your carb/intake/engine. Best/normal case, your truck will run like a top. It doesn't cure everything from baldness to cancer, but it's about as close as you'll come. Of course, if you have a known mechanical problem such as a broken part, it will not fix that.

I (and a few car dealers I know) use it with great results. It's the best kept secret in fuel problems, IMO. I don't sell it or have any connections to the company, I just use it in my small engine business.

BLES

[d rock]

yeah, i've heard a few guys on the Toyota Diesel forum (i also drive a Toyota Diesel hilux surf) mention Seafoam and good results. you're right, it doesn't cure a broken down part, but is potentially worth a try.

[BLES]

Vehicles that show as being nothing wrong but just run very rough/miss/sputter/ poor fuel economy.... pull the vacuum line off the brake booster and dump in about 1/3 can until it almost kills the engine. Shut off for about 10 minutes, then take it for a hard drive. If plugs/wires, etc. are in good shape it's almost unblievable the change it makes.... without getting your hands dirty, and in 15 minutes of time. Worth a shot I think.

BLES

[TetsuKuma]

Just burning out the deposits from all those miles! We used to use kerosene on our air cooled VW's for the same purpose. All that clogging from past ignition cycles gets loosened up then spit out the tail pipe. Kind of like an "Italian tune-up" with drugs! Couldn't hurt to try.

[Banzai]

Also chiming in for seafoam. i's great stuff, i use it in everything, from my 25,000 dollar subaru race motor to the lawn mower.

[superdutytrucks]

Vehicles that show as being nothing wrong but just run very rough/miss/sputter/ poor fuel economy.... pull the vacuum line off the brake booster and dump in about 1/3 can until it almost kills the engine. Shut off for about 10 minutes, then take it for a hard drive. If plugs/wires, etc. are in good shape it's almost unblievable the change it makes.... without getting your hands dirty, and in 15 minutes of time. Worth a shot I think.

BLES

Brake Booster???