[joeydurango]

Update: Yep, gas in the oil. I wonder if it was all from that one overflow or if it's done it before, less badly, so that it didn't quite stall out. It certainly has been difficult to start when hot sometimes, now I wonder if it was just filling up with gas after shutdown. Do I need to flush the old oil - as in drain, fill, run, drain and fill again? Or can I just do an oil change? (Hope so, seems like a waste of money and oil otherwise!)

I'll be changing the fuel pump, the oil, and having the carb rebuilt. Was going to rebuild it myself but I decided to contact Lars Grimsrud on a whim, since he's here in Colorado and a recognized Q-Jet genius. Turns out he does rebuild carbs for people on the side, and for much less than a lot of the bigger rebuild houses! Couldn't pass it up. One thing he mentioned that made a lot of sense: 44 years ago he would have leaned the jetting on a Qjet at 6500', but modern gas makes it so that now he enriches the jetting on sea level carbs and leaves stock jetting in carbs at altitude. Explains why I was able to tune the thing halfway decently! I checked my new plugs and they look good - a nice, even tan coat.

So close to having this thing pretty thoroughly gone through. I would sure like to drive it more than the 10 miles I cruise testing each system I get into...