Diagnosis - Foul Play!

["Mark Battley" <m.battley@domain.elided>]

>Driving merrily along to work, upon acceleration, my GTV would suddenly
>belch a large cloud of blue smoke and the engine would run rough - as if
>running on only 3 cylinders; loss of power, too. ....

>........The mysterious part is the big cloud of blue smoke accompanied with the
>loss of a firing cylinder.  Any theories?

Are you sure the smoke was blue?? Could it have been white?

Apart from the colour issue I'd guess a leaking brake booster, under
particular conditions (angle of road, acceleration) it will suck the brake
fluid into... wait for it... cylinder#4, resulting in a heavily fouled plug,
which will usually eventually clear itself. Been there, had very similar
symptoms, rebuilt the booster and it was cured.

If not, dunno!

Mark Battley
Auckland, New Zealand.

1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce

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