carbon monoxide

[northstarjim]

Hi, I had a problem with my A4 the other day I can't explain. It had been running fine all season. It is raw water cooled. During a cruise back to port, the sound of the engine suddenly changed, was running very roughly, and slowly an odor could be detected inside the cabin. I checked the carbon monoxide detector and it was reading 80 to 100 (first time ever it read anything higher than zero). I shut the engine off. Tried starting it again later but it would only idle with the choke pulled out - when closing the choke it would stall. After a few tries and pouring some Mystery oil in the tank, there was a pop and then the engine started running normally again. I'm a new A4 owner, so have a lot to learn - can anyone explain this? sticky valve???

Thanks

[USCGRET1990]

Interesting...try a post over hear, there's more engineering folk...
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/

[cardiacpaul]

making a base assumption here.
highly doubt a sticky valve.
More than likely some gunga-munga in the fuel supply.

[themcnasty]

Carbon Monoxide would only come from your exhaust and that would only come out into the cabin if your exhaust system had a leak or gasket problems shot it out the side of the head/valve cover or backwards out the intake.

I would take a peak at the head gasket (probably the only gasket you can't replace with a cutout from a manila folder, so buy a replacement gasket before removing the head) and valve cover gasket. Also, if you don't already have one, run an air intake hose back to some storage compartment not in the cabin rather than just leaving the littler perforated breather thing on.