AE82 Corolla FX problem - please help!

[zer0321]

I'm having some problems with my corolla-

I recently inherited a 1987 Corolla FX with only 79k miles, it's got a carburated 4A-C engine(possibly 4A-LC), and an automatic transmission. This car was sitting since 2003 when my grandfather passed away, and presumably had not been started since. I was given this corolla about a month ago, and have been trying to get it on the road again.

I started out checking all the fluids and making sure they were intact(changed the oil, flushed the coolant, even though they looked alright), I then installed a new battery and poured some gas in the carb...it started right up and purred like a kitten! I drove it around the block and parked it in my driveway. It was fine until yesterday when I went out to start it up again, it started right up, but was misfiring like a pissed off riding lawnmower(exhaust smelled alot like gasoline). To remedy this situation, I went to the local WalMart and bought some autolite platinum plugs (gapped to 0.44) and a generic looking Fram air filter. The old plugs were pretty black and fouled on cylinders 3&4.

Well, I installed the new plugs and drove the car around a little bit...when I first fired it up, it ran great again!...until it warmed up, now it runs like crap just like before I replaced the plugs. Basically it starts up and idles a little rough in Park and Neutral, but if you give it some gas it seems to run just fine. In Drive and Reverse, the little corolla stutters and feels like it is almost going to stall out until you give it some gas (I have no tach, so I can't see what rpm...about 1/4 throttle seems to do the trick) and then it runs fine until you let off the gas again.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

I've been looking for carburator settings to play with, (My first guess is it is running too rich or too low of an idle) but I can't find them...is it even adjustable!? I'd go buy the haynes/chiltons book, but this is kinda a crazy model and I don't know which one to get. (I'm not new to working on cars, but the only carburators I have ever played with are on domestics- '84 camaro v6, '85 cherokee 2.5l, '78 F-250).

Any help would be greatly appreciated! heres a link to a pic of the corolla fx-
http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/9113/dsc02750af9.jpg

THANKS!!!!

[zer0321]

nobody knows?

[joeras]

It sounds like the same problem i had a while back, my car was missfiring and i changed the spark plugs but when it got hot it started again. after a long time searching for the problem it was a blown head gasket, so i think that is what is wrong with yours.