This sounds very much like a problem that I had several years ago with a DUKW
that I restored. On that DUKW I could only get about 40 miles on a set of
spark plugs. At the end of the 40 miles the engine would start running
rough, missing, and finally would not run at all. Put a new set of spark
plugs in and it would run fine for another 40 miles. It took a long time and
a lot of work to figure this one out.
The problem was caused by the very good, high quality, expensive spark plug
wires that I had installed during the restoration. It turns out that the
very best spark plug wires that you can buy for TODAYS high energy ignitions
have an extreamly high resistance. The reason for this high resistance is
to cut down on radio frequency noise. In the process of cutting down the
noise with this high resistance a lot of spark voltage is lost in the wires.
This is not a problem with a modern high energy ignition because they start
out with a LOT of voltage to begin with and they will still have plenty of
voltage left over to make a good spark even with this voltage loss. WW 2
ignitions on the other hand didn't have this extra spark voltage available to
"waste" inside of the wires.
In the case of my DUKW all I did was to replace my high tech $40 set of
silicone spark plug wires with a low tech $8 set of solid core copper wires.
The result was fantastic. I had lots more power and the DUKW went for the
next 5 years on the same set of spark plugs. In fact it may still have that
same set of spark plugs in it because those are the ones that were in it when
I sold it.
I can't guarentee that this is your problem, but it can't hurt to take a
look.
Good luck.
Bill Mesmer
Rochester, NY
M-151A2
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