When I change gears in my 1974 standard beetle I have been told that it blows a puff of smoke. Engine is 1600dp with 31 pict 4 carb and 009 distributor. The heat risers are rusted and blocked. I will be changing the carb to 34 pict 3, the distributor to a vacuum distributor and new manifold next week. Will changing these 3 things fix this problem?

Also when I tried to start my car after school today, it took a while to start and when it did start it was "chugging" (running rough and shaking the whole car). This only lasted about 20 seconds though. Think it might have been blowing a bit of smoke as well. I have a crome air filter. Would this be causing any problems?

Hope someone can help me get my car running right.
Thanks,
Simon

mate check your spark plugs and see if there black and sooty or even oily ,it sounds like its burning oil,check your engine oil as well to see if the level is down ,what else do you guys reckon

blowing smoke when u back off to change gears sounds like the valve guides,

check your plugs, get your heatrisers fixed, check your leads, if it was idling funny it might not have been firing on one cylinder.

check the mixture adjustment on your carby as well.

I think it was firing on all cylinders. It felt more like there was somthing in the cylinders that there shouldn't be (oil). Putting my foot to the floor while this was happening did nothing. It did'nt rev up just kept at the same rpm while chugging.

sounds like it was partly flooded with too much fuel,wait and see what new carb does,but yes check plugs and stuff to make sure none are fouling

Could the carb be causing overrun as well?

most likely coke buildup in the combustion chamber causing run on, but if your engine was running lean then it could be heating these carbon deposits up easier creating hot spots and allowing your engine to run on without spark.

Ok thanks everyone for your help. Ill see if my problems are fixed from the swap.

Took out the spark plugs and had a look at them. Didn't seem to be that bad. Did have a bit of soot though. Sorry about the pictures, they are off a mobile.





How do these look to you?

Wow! Feels like a new car!.. Car has the carby and distributor changed and that got rid of alot of problems it was having. No more pining up hills, no more overrunning, no more puff of smoke between gears and easy starting. Fuel economy and more driveability are also side effects Of course my problems never really end. My idiot brother thought it would be funny to run into my car with his commodore today



Heres a picture of the clearancing and bending of the accelerator pump linkage that had to be done to fit the carby.



New engine bay.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions.
Simon

PS. Does anyone have a link or some pictures on how to adjust the shift rod. I thought i understood what to do but I really have no idea.