Originally Posted by Semple

Well, after chasing a tune for over a week I decided I'd go to the track today anyway. I had some good guys helping try to find the tune. We would find what we thought to be a good idle, and good bottom end, put it down on the ground for a few minutes and it would start to lean out and struggle to move at all. After about 30 seconds, it would get this horrible lean bog at half throttle or more. It would spit tons of smoke for those 30 seconds, then there would be a lot less, and the temps would soar up above 260. Same problems I've been having for a long time now. It got to the point that the bottom end was out so far that it just didn't make any sense to keep going. Then one of the guys noticed that the o-ring that sits at the top of the carb neck had been pushed out and was no longer seated in between the case and the carb. I couldn't explain this as the engine had never been taken apart. At that point we just assumed that was the problem, an air leak at that point. I packed everything up and spectated for a few hours.


On the way home I stopped at Canadian Tire(Department store specializing in automotive, outdoors and tools/hardware) and picked up some gasket sealer. I began to take the engine apart and quickly realized that there was in fact, still an intact o-ring on the carb neck. The o-ring wrapped around the case below the carb is beyond me. I noticed as I took the engine off the chassis that there was a puddle of raw fuel under the engine mounts, and a steady stream of it coming from the front bearing/crank area.


I guess the big question is, could my bearing be leaking THAT BAD as to render my engine completely and utterly un-tunable and incapable of holding a tune/not leaning out regardless of settings? It's weird, the engine is not very old, and has not seen much fuel. Less than a gallon, still.