smoking and lost power :-(

I had this happen once, and it was the hose from air-filter to manifold, but that was a diesel, and so was still getting full fuel. Still worth checking. I'd have a look at the plugs, and see if one is suddenly very badly oiled. Check oil and water for signs of one getting into the other.

I had that and the fault was a loose wire in the distributer

bit of solder, works again

Nigel

Carburettor Icing? Mine has done this occasionally when the weather is cold and damp. Just pull over turn the engine off and wait about 5 minutes for the carb to de-ice.

Never had that when I had my 2.3 S3 but I had it happen to 2 cars, same weather conditions(1) and same time of day and at exactly the same place.

(1)cold, foggy morning

Thanks for all of your advice guys.

After cleaning the last spark plug I noticed the vacuum pipe from the dizzy with no home to go to. Reconnected the pipe, hey presto, nice running Landy again.

I had horrible visions of blown head gaskets etc. but it was just nice and simple. Which was a good job because if I'd spent any more time outside I think my fingers would have dropped off!!

I've had very strange problems caused by points gap closing up cos the screw worked loose. Took me ages to figure that one out...

Alex

I have a multimeter which can read engine revs and the dwell angle, just a couple of connections to make.

Yes, all that high-tech gear in a garage look expensive, but it can check things quickly. Back when my Landie was new, a dwell meter was expensive garage high-tech.

But I still have a set of feeler gauges.