Alright i just got a used War Eagle with this 16hp vanguard LT and it's ran Great up til today. It would run pretty good out of water but it was blowing alot of black smoke which leads me to believe it's burning a ton of extra fuel, it would do it the worst when i would open it up to WOT. The motor would fall on it's face when i would put it in the water though. I've been doing alot of reading online and here and i'm thinking that it's the valves that need to be adjusted but i couldn't find any place that sold feeler gages at 11:00pm so i'll check that out tomorrow. Also i bought new plugs for it and it's still blowing black smoke, and the old plugs when i took them out were BLACK!
Any one have any thing else i should check on this motor? Thanks for the help

Make sure both cylinders are getting fire.

The old plugs are carbon fouled , clean your carburetor

Well we adjusted the valves and it seems to be running pretty damn good but i think i have a vacuum leak in my gas line cuz it would cut out and the primer bulb wouldn't be stiff, so i had to pump it ever once and a while and it ran great.

Oh and sorry i forgot to mention that both cylinders were getting spark

I noticed that one of the plastic nipples on my fuel pump(the one coming from the valve cover) was cracked. So i replacing the entire fuel pump and it runs GREAT now! better than when i first got it!