Hi everyone,

since 2 days I am a new owner of a 1977 Skylark with 231 ci V6. I know that it sat in a garage for 5 years and wasn't driven during that time and I that someone stole the AC compressor and the lines going from it to the condenser a short time ago (it wasn't in a garage then) since you can pop the hood without having to go inside the car.
Unfortunately that's all I know about it.

Yesterday I wanted to start it and at first it would crank but not start. I sprayed some starting fluid into the carb and it started and died short after that. I tried it again and this time it ran a bit longer. I tried it again without the fluid and it started and died after about 2 seconds. The next time I stepped on the gas pedal pretty hard (but not full throttle), kept it like that for about 3 seconds and let off. It idled for about 2 seconds and then died.
Every next attempt was the same, I even tried again today.

Every time there was a lot of blue smoke coming out of the exhaust, just like from a 2 stroke engine.

Another thing I noticed in this car is that it had no coolant when I got it. I started filling up the radiator when I noticed that there is coolant leaking from somewhere near the water pump. The pump itself looks brand new but it doesn't have a normal gasket. It has such one made from a gasket maker instead, you can see it all over the pump. Almost all of my coolant leaked out.
I don't know whether it's just the gasket or a cracked cylinder head near the water pump.

Now my question is what can be the reason for the engine to behave just like I described. Does it have something to do with the carb and its adjustment or the fuel pump or can it be something else?
The carb is a Rochester Dualjet 210 with electric choke btw.

I've also bought a compression gauge to check whether it's ok if the cylinder head is bad on it. Let's pray it's not but you never know, especially if you buy a vehicle that you don't know too much about like I did here.

I hope you can help me.

Karl

 

Fighting a losing battle I’m afraid. Bad gas for starters; carbs do have fuel bowl strainers; is choke actually working; fouled plugs; anti-freeze, yes- just switch to new orange stuff; is oil milky looking?; guess very fortunate it even turns over......

 

Thanks for the answer, Rich.

The fuel level is between E and quarter tank but that gas has been sitting there the same amount of time as the car wasn't used.
I didn't flush the tank nor hook up a small external one for the starting purpose.
I don't know what issues can result from old gas.

I've also seen mechanical pumps go bad on a few cars sitting for a long time - either they didn't pump at all or too little or pumped, not pumped, then pumped again and so on. Not sure if it can be the problem here too.

I haven't looked at the plugs nor looked at the carb nor tested the choke.

The oil looks like it would be used for half of the mileage that you normally do between changes.

What about antifreeze, I cannot put anything in there as it starts to leak out after about a minute.