VCCA Home Forums Thread Like Summary - Newly acquired "35 Standard won't run

I brought home my newly acquired '35 Coupe this past weekend. The engine was lightly stuck but moved quickly with a pry bar in the starter ring gear teeth. After new plugs, points, condenser, changed coil and carb, and finally the starter, it starts and runs for a few seconds and dies. On a couple of occasions it has run for as much as 1/2 minute. At first, it surged for the time it was running. That has gone away and it seems to run smooth, but will not rev up. It acts like it is struggling to keep running, then dies.
Timing has been checked and reset. Vacuum advance holds vacuum. The replacement carb came from my, perfectly running, other, '35 Standard coupe.
Any ideas??

Mike

Well, well, well. It turns out that when mice have been living in your exhaust system for almost 60 years, they leave a lot of stuff in there. It is a miracle they never moved into the manifold or a cylinder with an open valve.
The engine was lightly stuck but I was able to free it with a pry bar on the starter ring gear. I turned it a full turn after adding some ATF and acetone to each cylinder. The starter turned it easily with the plugs out. I had also bounced each valve with a dead blow hammer before I tried to turn the engine.
Once I had checked the boxes and hit the starter, I got a sputter pretty quick. I thought I was about to go for a ride. That was Sunday. I didn't work on it much yesterday or this morning. Monday, Tuesday and this afternoon were spent chasing a problem that I think I should have caught onto much sooner.
As soon as I disconnected the exhaust pipe, it started and continued to run.
Thanks for all the input.

Mike

This is a really out-of-left field question. Is the gravity feed system properly vented?

I had a fellow VCCA member who had set up a gravity feed gas supply to temporarily run the engine in a Model A. One evening our VCCA chapter was at his place for a meeting. He was describing the exact same symptom. The engine would start fine but only run and 20 seconds. Throttle movement did not affect anything.

I looked at his one gallon rectangular metal can for the fuel supply. He had soldered an outlet line into the cap. He had a make-shift hanger to hold the can upside down about the same height as the cowl fuel tank in the Model A. I asked how he vented it. No response. Just a sheepish look.

Gene,
I am using a gravity flow nurse tank so I think my fuel supply is adequate. I have no reason to think I am losing spark. For the few seconds that it runs, it is at a fast idle and is not affected by the throttle position.

Chipper,
I knew it was a ridiculous notion that $1 bill would solve my problem, so I used a $20. It didn't help. Could I borrow a $100?

Mike