WD wouldn't run right.

"The odd stories are pretty numerous. Here is mine. I rebuilt my WD. When I got everything together - bolts all tightened and everthing in place - I fired her up. She started quickly, ran great for about 5 seconds and then started to miss. By pulling plug wires, it seemed that the 1 and 4 cylinder had no impact on running. Pulling 2 and 3 would cause engine to stop. So I started to check ignition - replaced the cap - checked points, plugs - nothing looked bad. On each subsequent starting it would run fine for a few seconds and then go bad. Finally I decided it had to be the intake manifold. Thought maybe an animal crawed into the exhaust or intake and died. So I pulled the manifold and noticed the nuts weren't real tight. All the ports were clean. Reinstalled and started. Ran fine for a minute or two and then started missing. Rechecked the torque on manifold and the nuts were loose. Finally concluded that the manifold was loose and added additional washers to every manifold bolt and torqued them. It started and ran fine for about 20 minutes before missing started. Re-torqued the manifold and it ran fine again. Later I had to retorque those nuts a third time but it now runs perfectly. It was a loose manifold all the time. The question is this. Since 1 and 2 share the same intake port and 3 and 4 share the same port, why would 2 & 3 run good but 1 & 4 would not work at all. The manifold ends were in good shape and all at the same level and were not heavily corroded. Trouble shooting is an interesting game! "

Maybee you should loosen the bolts to see if loose bolts were really cause of the problem. NOT.

My guess is that #2 intake stroke immediately preceeds #1 intake, and #3 intake immediately preceeds #4. It seems the engine altrernates which end if the intake manifold it uses. It first draws from 2# then #1 ( front end of intake manifold ) and then draws from #3 then #4 ( back end ). My guess is the first cyl to draw gas from an end if the intake was ok, but the second cyl to draw gas got a leaner mixture. Maybee the first cyl to draw gas at an end of the intake manifold caused an extra pulse of vaccum that caused outside air to enter the manifold.

Gee I really don't know but that's my guess.

Have a Good one
D.D.Post

Anyway, I don't think it is possible to analyze why without a lot of effort in a lab setting with equipment I don't have. I just thought it was an interesting (and frustrating) experience.