Motor ?

[Jonezy]

I was recently looking at a used engine to buy and when checking out the engine I noticed that the exhaust ports on cylinders #1 and #2 where substantially darker than the other 6 cylinders. Is that a sure sign that the motor is headed south or could it possibly be a fuel issue?

[perfconn]

Not a sure sign of anything.Could be caused by carburetor adjustment,header design or a few other things such as bad manifold design.

[Jonezy]

K, don't know if it matters but the motor is a 9 degree dart from a very respected team

[TeamGRT12x]

If you are spending over 10k, I would ask the team to meet you at a Dyno shop before you bought the piece, to be sure nothing was wrong. At that time, an engine builder (Or take it to who built it to start) can check it over, and put it on the dyno. Good luck!

[Jonezy]

Well after cause for concern, we did a leak down test on the motor and it was near perfect. Took a chance and went ahead and bought the motor. Pretty sure the black residue was a carberator issue. We put our Stealth carberator on it and put it in the car. Started the motor and all went well. So we changed the plugs and headed to the track. Was second fast time and ran second in the heat. Had a problem with the lift bar in the feature so we were done for the night. Motor ran great, plugs looked great, so all went well. Thanks for those who posted.