Clipper 1.8 running really rough after standing idle for the last 3 years - Any help would be appreciated

Hi Guys, very long time lurker here but actually my first time of posting. Just wondering if anyone can help as reading through a ton of posts there are some very knowledgeable people on the forum and i'm sure the issues i'm having will have been previously resolved many times over the years.

Ok heres the car from one or two favourable angles, doesn't look too bad for a car of its age but the lacquer has peeled off from a large proportion of the bonnet and top of the wings so will need a bit of a respray at some point. Also needs a new mohair roof but i just wanted to make sure everything was mechanically sound before i proceeded.




It's a 1.8 Clipper and  I've owned the car for the last 13 years but it has been parked up for the last 3 years only occassionally being started up and driven a few yards up and down the driveway. The car normally won't start after being left for more than a few days and has always needed a bit of fuel poured directly in to the carb. Once this is done the car will then start without any issue and the manual choke keeps the engine revving at around 1500 rpm then once warmed up and choke off it will sit around 1000 rpm and runs fine. Mileage is around 130,000.

I started the car up around two weeks ago and it was running really rough, wouldn't idle and you had to keep gently revving it to try and keep revs between 1500 and 2000 rpm otherwise it would instantly cut out and when running it sounded like it was misfiring. The manual choke had no effect and actually made things worse. I checked the choke cable and it was connected fine and moving the butterfly on the weber carb. Weber carb replaced the original pierburg carb many years ago although it was secondhand when installed but has worked fine since. The car also seems to be blowing a bit of either white or blue smoke when running, i'm not sure which.

I checked the distribution cap and also rotor arm, cap terminals were all pitted on inspection and rotor arm looked very tired so i replaced both of these but it made very little difference. I then replaced the spark plugs and the HT leads again with not too much difference.

The new spark plugs look very sooty considering the car has not actually made any journeys with them in and has only been turned over and gently revved, is this normal? The original spark plugs taken out looked the same type of sooty as these new ones.





I thought it may have then been a fuel problem so I've replaced the clear in-line fuel filters as the originals did look quite dirty and i have also tried bypassing the fuel seperator can so that the fuel pump goes directly to the carb but again has made no difference. I have put around £10 of fresh fuel in and the car was very low initially so i don't think there is any water contamination of the fuel.  I collected fuel coming straight from the fuel pump and it looks fine.

I've used a compression tester on the engine and all the first 3 cylinders are showing 170 psi and cylinder No. 4 is 165 psi. This does sound OK doesn't it? I actually have two copies of the brown Haynes Manual which i would use to check this but can't find either of them, ha ha thats what happens when you let your daughter tidy up in the house, can never find a thing afterwards.

Is the blue/white smoke likely to be caused by worn stem valves?

I'm also thinking of removing the carb and trying to give it a good clean whilst removed from the car, do you think this would help seeing as the choke no longer seems to work as it had done previouly?

Sorry for so much information in one go but thought it might all be relevant.

Here is a video of the car starting up and running whilst being gently revved, please turn down your volume as there is a terrible screech from the fan belt for a good few seconds. I need to order one as this has always happened and they are generally replaced every year or so.



https://youtu.be/ZOMfIrvxxMc


Thanks
Joe