KF82 engine issue

[sp_clark]

A few months back, I fabricated a new 'stock' air cleaner system for my early 80's DS with the KF82. Since doing that, it starts WAY easier (has a choke now) and runs great. That is, until this weekend.

My wife and I were tooling around the trailer park in the cart, and went down by the launch ramp. I noticed on the way over to the ramp that the engine seemed to be laboring when trying to accelerate. It didn’t seem to be quite running right. When we started back up the ramp, I could hear the engine pinging, and it was low on power, barely making it up the ramp. The engine will ping like this also if I hold the choke on to long when starting it. Once on level ground, it seemed to run okay, but still didn’t accelerate normally. We stopped for a few minutes to visit friends and when I went to start it, it would not start and it sounded as though the choke was on and I could smell fuel. I could also see fuel dripping from the carburetor/air cleaner area. I confirmed that the choke was not on, but removed the air intake hose and air cleaner canister. When turning over the engine, it seemed to be puffing out the intake rather than sucking in. This cart is kept at a park 200 miles from my home and I had no way to get it home, so I decided to pull the motor and bring it home to try and figure out what’s going on. I’ve not done anything to it yet, but it definitely does have what seems to be decent compression. I’ll put the tester on it later this week.

Any ideas on where I should start? The pinging sound to me sort of indicated that maybe the timing got thrown out of whack somehow. The other thing of note, is that when I replaced the air cleaner assembly, there was a vent hose that would normally protrude through into the air intake, that I plugged off (the hole in the canister did not line up properly). I thought this hose was to recirculate gases back into the carburetor, but upon inspection now, I see that it vents the valve spring area. A friend of mine mentioned that this is used to bring oil up into that area. Any possibility that having that blocked off could have caused a problem?

As I said I have not worn into it yet but will do so probably later this week. Before I do I thought I’d pick a few brains if possible. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Streetbu]

That hose would be your crankcase vent and cannot be blocked. I don't see how that would cause he problems you are having now though... I'd start with a compression test and go from there.