Check the oil first, if it's low, refill. Check for oil leaks. On several of mine the rear frame for the sulky and oil line have come in contact and worn a hole in the oil line. The oil pump on these is very small and is a low pressure design. If you have a filter, and not all of them do, it could be clogged.
Next check the head fins for dirt/mud and make sure all the air direction baffles are there. I've bought a mess of Gravelys with missing baffles and they don't cool well at all without them. Make sure the fan belt is in good shape and tight enough, it takes a pretty thin wrench to get to the inside nut, but it can be done.
Check the timing. It's not at all unusual for the timing to be off a bit due to wear, vibration, worn points. That can lead to poor performance just as you describe.
Check for carbon build up on the piston/head/valves. That's a low compression engine and a little carbon can make things go wrong pretty quick.
Usually when it starts smoking and dies out, part of that is worn rings and the crankcase/oil fill vent being plugged with dirt. Easy to wash it out.
The Gravely is a fantastic design for the application, but it's an old tractor friend. It may come time for a rebuild if it's wear causing your trouble.
This post was edited by Bret4207 at 04:50:45 11/28/12.
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