I finally broke down and checked my compression, and got some bad news.

front: 45/45/45

rear: 45/45/45

i'm going to go and get some SeaFoam and dump that down my carb and into my spark plug holes and let it sit for a week or so, turning it over a few times a day and see if that helps, but it looks like a motor swap is on the docket .

 

are you sure a rebuild wouldnt do it? it would be less expensive to put new seals and spring and whatnot rather than a whole new engine.

 

i already have a 68k mile engine

 

auto transmission oil worked really well for me

 

well I just figured out that I don't have my spark plug gap set to the proper gap, does anyone know what gap it's supposed to be at? I'm grounding from the base of the electrode (by the ceramic insulator) to the body of the plug.

 

NGK's? I never touch them. Always worked for me right out of the box.

 

plug gap is pre-set to .041", which is factory spec.

 

so i put through ~16oz of H2O, and the motor started clearing up a little bit. I then ran out of gas . I'm going to pick up 3 cans of SeaFoam and 6 gallons of gas tomorrow, mix one can of SeaFoam in the 6 gallons of fuel, and then run the other two through the brake booster vacuum port on my intake mani and see if that, combined with another gallon of water, will help free up my seals. If not, then it's going to be ATF, and if that doesn't work after a couple of days, then i'm going to declare the motor dead and start prepping my 68k mile core for drop-in.