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The Museum has a Mule we use to transport parts, tools or whatever around the grounds. It sure is a handy toy to have when you gotta go and heft a large part from the back 40 to the shop. Well, the last few times we used it, it has been puffing black smoke at idle and not running as good as it should. Yesterday, I needed to go get a hood for another project out back. It fired fairly easy, but was doing the black smoke/blubbering at idle thing a bit more than normal. I figured it was the carb, so I gave it a bit of an adjustment. Had to turn the mixture screw all the way in..hmmm that's not right
, guess it needs a carb clean out. We went ahead and started out to the back, got 60 or so yards from the shop and it started blubbering and smoking blue
! We stopped, and it smoothed out and started running fine again..hmm wonder what that was? Went ahead and drove it about 20 feet and it did the same thing. Decided to shut it down and give it a peek. Pulled the cover and found the boot between the intake elbow and the venturi on the carb dripping in oil. We went on an got the hood off of the donor 715, put it on the 274 and pulled it back to the shop..nice to have a tow bar on board that a single person can easily handle. Got it up into the shop and started giving it a look. Pulled the intake pipe off and found the venturi full of oil..WAIT..gas...no, oil...no, GAS and OIL! Pulled the dipstick and found it 4 inches over full. Pulled on the starter and oil/gas was comming out the tube from the CC to the carb inlet. Well found the reason for the black smoke at idle! Just a bit of reenforcement here. Even if you KNOW the fluid levels are good at the start of things, if your stuff sits and you see no leaks, CHECK THE FLUIDS! I have been wrenching on stuff my whole life. I KNOW one of the first things I am supposed to do is check fluids. Shame on me for not doing what I know is right
. It would have been horrible if I smoked an engine at the place where I am trusted to take care of things. We all get lazy and say to ourselves..."AAHH, it was all good the last time I checked it and I just gotta do this little thing, it'll be ok" Well mister, it can happen that fast. Here are a few pics...oh yeah, the cause of the failure? The fuel pump took a dump from the crappy gas we have now and filled the engine full of gas. Parts are on the way. The pic of my fingers on the stick, right finger is the "full" mark, left is the level of the fluid in the engine.
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