Another nice day in the Midwest so I got a lot of wrenching and re-wiring done. I'm not trying to resto this thing, just hoping to baseline it to see what's what and drive it a bunch this summer before doing much more.
Drained the fuel tank and flushed it with fresh fuel. Actually looked really good, so guessing the fuel filter might have been original. Spent some time undoing strange po wiring stuff and now have the ignition, horn, turn signals, cigarette lighter, and front heater blower working. (rear heater blower feels stuck). There was a cheap after market coil installed, so I added a toyota coil and proper starter. New plugs and wires. Checked points, and distributor, looked good.
Good news: It fired right up with choke and idled nicely. I got it warm and set low idle. Perfect, running smooth, sounds good.
Bad news: blowing some smoke at start up... heated up a bit after a 15 minute drive and was losing some coolant. I knew the cooling system looked in need of a rehab, but I think I have an engine needing a rebuild. Seems like oil smoke, and a couple of the new plugs looked pretty bad after a 15 minute drive. Overheating could be head gasket. bummer.
I haven't driven this since bringing it home mid January. I parked it and pulled the carb. When I went to look at it, it was below zero and snow. Perfect weather to hide overheating and smoke i guess. And I definitely was not as thorough as I would have been in better weather.
I did a cold compression test a couple of weeks ago and it was ok, consistent. Will try again with engine warm and see what I get. Best case scenario is top end rebuild I think, maybe bad valve and head gasket. Could be rings or scored cylinder walls too.
Oh well, definitely overpaid and learned a lesson. Onward!