Engine is running like CRAP
 

Ok, I just put my wheels back on and pulled the truck out, first off, I pretty much have to floor it just to get the truck moving, and even then it is barely running, it feels like only maybe four cylinders out of eight are running. Now, this is a very recent development, I have run the engine serveral times while it was in the shop (you know, you just get the craving to hear the roar of the V8 ;)) and it ran very well, but yeah, now it is running like crap. Any suggestions as to what I should be looking at to see what the problem may be? Oh yeah, when I run the engine right now, thick bluish black smoke comes out.

Maybe the distributer?

black is gas is the carb flooding it? pul;l plugs to see if therye fouled

Alright, I will check the plugs, and the distributer cap, it has been many years since anything was tuned up on it. I know the engine works well, just recently that it started acting funny, like two weeks ago sort of recently

I guess she just needed to roar a bit and let out the stress. I just took her out and ran her for a bit, and now she is sounding a lot better! She smoked, and barely ran for a while, but now she is purring with only a tremor as she idles, compared to the rough idle that was enough to rattle the whole truck before.

You need a set of plugs... You have probably fouled the plugs with the starting it every once in a while just to hear it run...replace the plugs, it should be good as new....:flag:

Also check the timing and carb air/fuel ratio settings. This will help get it tuned better.

I know it needs a good tuneup for sure. Its not just me starting it to take a listen every once and a while, since 1999 the truck has just been started, moved across the yard and shut down, it hasn't done any long distance trips at all, not even the chance to warm up. I guess it just needs a couple longer trips and some fuel additive to clean things up a bit. I plan on changing out the air filter on the carb as well as the plugs and possibly the distributer cap. None of them have been changed in probally ten years.