WD45 Sounds like?

I have put a ton of work into  a wd45 that was a gift from my wifes folks. I have worked on this thing for a year and was going to plow with it this month. Well I was feeling petty proud of it until my wifes Grandfather, the original owner, came over to take a look. He liked the way it looked but when I started it he said it's not right it sounds wrong! He got on and pulled the choke part way and the sound got deep faster and smooth and he said that's what it should sound like. If you have read my last post I have been through this thing; engine, head, carb, ignition, timing I don't know what it is or if it is his memory. I turned up the power valve till the thing was pushing black smoke and I can not get it to sound like or run as smooth as with the choke about 3/4 closed. It idles, it thottles up but it is not right acording to him and I have to respect that because he bought it new. There is also a dead spot when you trottle up that makes a cracking sound if that helps. Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks.

I didn't check the manifold for leaks but I did put new gaskets in it when I installed it. How would I check that? Would it have to be a substantial leak?

Had a similar issue with a tractor we had and after working on "everything" Dad came over and rattles the trottle shaft and said replace that.  I did and I'll be willing to bet "everything" didn't need touched.  On the plus side it hadn't run like that ever since we got it.  Literally a new machine.  

 Would some ultra copper help fix the leak?

That's the same thing thar happend to me with my WD. It acked like it wasn't getting fuel, then it got worse. It started missing and droped # 1 cyl. I thought I bent a push rod and sounded like an old jonney popper. Checked  points, carb ,plugs, fuel line I didn't find anything. My buddy Kent said check the manifold for a leak.  A piece of #1&2 intake gasket broke and gone. took the manifold off used a big file and straight edge. got everything close new gaskets & sealer, runs like a top.

Edited by BILLP-SE-MI - 13 Oct 2010 at 11:24am

If you have any leaks in the manifold, intake or exhaust, you need to machine or file the head and manifold flat or the problem will come back. No amount of gasket will fix an out of flat condition. Belzona might, but I would lean towards machining. I went through the exhaust leak thing with a 45. After new gaskets and a new manifold , it still blew out in a couple hours running. I pulled the head and milled both the head and the "new" now not flat manifold. It's been fine for the last 10 years now.  Charlie

It's a leak. I took a feeler gauge and started poking around I found a gap on the bottom of both intake runners. The  front one was 0.024. Guess it's back to the machine shop.

 It was an intake leak on both runners and it is fixed! I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I bought a complete gasket set that had about 50 different gaskets some of which I still havn't identified. Anyway this thing had no parts list, no description and no instructions just a pile of gaskets. So as I took things apart I had to find the on that looked like the one I took off. After I took off the manifold I started looking through the box of left over gaskets because for some reason it came with two spares for the manifold. While I was looking I found two paper type gaskets that fit perfectly into the metal ones. Long story short the tractor sounds increadable and has a ton of power and the sound is smooth! No more spuddering "Poppin Jonny". Thanks for all the help you guys nailed it.