Expert: jack bahm - 3/15/2010

Question
Jack, I see you've been helpful to many users here.  Hope you can help me.  I made the cardinal mistake of fixing something that wasn't broke!

About a month ago, I completely cleaned the carb and fuel lines.  They were completely gummed up.  The gas came out like caulk.  
After doing that and replacing the spark plugs (gapped at .35), the car ran link new.  It was amazing, idled perfect, ran cool, etc.  This weekend I changed the oil and cleaned out the radiator.  I ran the radiator till the cooling system ran out clear and put distilled water and rust preventative.  Before changing the oil out I ran a high-mileage engine flush through it (10 mins of idling perfect) and then drained the oil.  I then ran 2 qts straight through until even the oil came out clean.  I then filled the engine with 40w.  

After starting her up again, she seemed to be running rougher and I couldn't get her to go above about 10 miles an hour and was backfiring.  I also seemed to smell a gas rich exhaust and I couldn't move the timing lever more than a notch down without the car stalling.  I thought it was because when I cleaned the carb out earlier, I didn't have a gasket to replace the old (worn out) one.  I bought some gasket material from Advanced Auto and made a new one - seems perfectly identical.  I took the carb apart and replaced it with my new one.  

Now the car will barely even start.  It tries and then runs for a few revs and dies.  Seems very rich.  I bought a new factor gasket for the carb last night to be delivered this week, but I have no idea what to do and am pretty upset about breaking a good thing.  I'm curious if you have any ideas and this morning I started wondering if I bent the floats in the carb to high or low or something?  Carb = Zenith Model 13922 (no in-car mixture control).

Additional notes:  It was my first time changing out the oil.  I noticed that there seems to be a little "condensation" on the inside of the silver oil filler cap.  It looks like water because it is so clear, but am not sure.  Also, I have never really been able to get much more than what seems to be 20 mph out of her (even when she was running well a few weeks ago) – the engine just didn’t seem to have more.  Is this a timing issue?

I'm lost, please help.

Answer
Check the compression, you may have water leaking into the cylinders.  Check the head bolt torque, but be careful on the two front nuts.  If you can get 45 ft.# on them without breaking the goose neck, stop there.  Sounds like you need a new set of points, cleaned plugs and good timing.  I don't think it has anything to do with your carb gasket.  Not familiar with the no mix adjust carb.  I hope you have the model A mechanic's handbook.  It will tell you how to time it.  Also, put a new condenser in it.  
Try all this and let me know how you make out.
jack