I got a sump gasket today for my wife's 3000 and refit the pan, filled the
engine with oil and, after pulling the plugs, spun it over for about 20 seconds
until oil pressure appeared on the guage, then reinstalled the plugs and fired
the engine over. The frightful clunking noise--caused by the mysterious dent
in the oilpan just interfering with the nuts for the #2 big end--was gone as
a result of my having carefully banged out the depressio.
My wife and I took the car for a nice ride and the "intermittent miss"
(remember that) also seems to be gone. It appears that putting 30W oil in the
carb
piston reservoirs richened it up enough to eliminate the low-speed miss and
cruising-speed flutter (thanks Dave Russell for the good diagnosis).
BTW, I got some conflicting opinions on whether or not to pack the oil pump
with vaseline prior to restarting.. Some listers, whose opinions I respect
highly, suggested that the oil pump and line to the OP guage would be airlocked
and not prime. OTOH, others also with much experience said that I should just
pull the plugs and spin the engine till pressure appeared. I just didn't like
the concept of sticking vaseline in the engine so I took the second route and
had no problems.
Thanks to all for the patience and help--Michael Oritt
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