Hello again, over the weekend i took apart the carb, sprayed it several times with healthy doses of carb cleaner, blew air thru all the passages i could find with my air gun and reassembled. It idles better, but there is little or no change when i move the throttle. Everything on the carb seems to be connected and moving properly. I still have the air cleaner and the blade off. Just for giggles, when i put the old air cleaner back on, the engine dies almost imediately. I looked again and there is a cover over the head next to the spark plug (not finned like I thought, must have been good brownies!). Could this be a bad head gasket, a leftover problem from the original problem (tons of smoke, not many rpm's, lots of vibration)? I feel i am close, but it's not right yet. shadester
