Hi everyone. Im new to the site and am very grateful that there is a forum for these old trucks. Anyway I just bought a 1985 Dodge Ram 50 Sport with a carbureted 2.0 L engine. The car was very poorly maintained (no gas cap, dirty oil, dirty coolant, etc.) but it ran! So I did all the basic maintenance stuff I could think of: changed the oil, did a radiator flush, put in new spark plugs, changed the fuel filter, and air filter.
So far i have two problems:
#1When i took out the spark plugs they had black charcoal material on the insulator tip and greasy goopy stuff around the threads. i dont know what this means but i know its not supposed to be this way. what might i do?
#2 (the much bigger problem) when i go to start my truck in the morning it will idle low, spew out white smoke when i hit the gas, and if i attempt to drive it before giving it enough time to warm up it will ramble down the street and stall. I have been told that the problem may be the choke, but i dont even know what type of choke i have and no owners manual (i'm also new to working on cars but i got the chiltons manual and am ready to learn). So any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
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Thick white smoke is usually a sign of an antifreeze leak into the cylinder. Run a compression test and see if anyof the cylinder walls are cracked.The black Charcoal means it's burning oil. It might just be left over from a previous problem.