overland wrote:

I thought I had run out of questions, but here’s another: which gas should I use? plain 87 octane or a premium? Some of the premiums don’t have ethanol.

I use regular pump gas. These are low compression engines and work fine on 87 octane. Just use any leftover gas in your car or lawn mower at the end of the season.

Check for spark, then pull the plugs and check for fuel, either flooding or dry.

overland wrote:

Dumb question: How do I check for a spark?

Theoretically, these engines should produce spark powerful enough to jump a 1/4″ air gap while cranking. But, I’m sure you don’t have an actual “spark tester”. So, I would remove the plugs, ground them externally, then crank the engine. It might be easier to have an assistant crank while you watch, and do this in the shade/dusk/dawn, so you can see the spark jump the gaps.
Please be careful, make sure there is not spilled fuel around on the engine and that the engine isn’t spitting fuel out of the cylinders…Perhaps you might want to leave an old set of plugs in the block while you watch a new set of J6Cs spark while grounded to the block…
You may want to consider removing the starter, then removing the round inspection cover on top of the flywheel if so equipped… This is a quick and easy way to look at the coils to see if they are cracked/split while sneaking a peak at the points to make sure they are not oil fouled.