my car recently started to sputter a lil bit , and smoke under the hood, and shoot white smoke out of the exhaust.
the smoke under the hood smells like coolant, and looks like it also(little puddles of it)
The exhaust is new on it, so i dont think it could be that.
* * * *if any of you guyz have had the same problem , or think you might have an idea of what it is, feel free to tell me because im not much of an engine man, so i dont really have much of a clue whats wrong with it.....if this is too vague to find out whats wrong, just wright what you think...Thanks to anyone who has suggestions...(im hopin its not my block that maybe warped!)
Well, it dosen't sound good. You have either a blown head gasket or a cracked head. I just replaced the head on my 2.0.
Check the oil, if it's changing to a chocolate color then antifreeze is getting in the oil. Also do a cylinder pressure test. Either one of those should let you know for sure if this is your prob.
The good news is that it's not a terribly hard job if you're even somewhat mechanically inclined and have a good repair manual. The bad news is, that if it's a 1.8 or 2.0, the head is probally cracked as they are kinda notorious for that.
If you do decide to fix it yourself, you'll want to have the head pressure tested a machine shop and might as well go ahead and have a valve job done on it.
Oh yea, I paid $189 for a remanned head for the local machine shop.
Like I said, sorry about the bad news but if the symptoms are just like you say, i'm nearly 100% sure it's a head or head gasket. Let us know what you find.
Dayton
'85 Cav sedan, 2.0
^ yeah what he said head gasket or head
Pull the rad cap off and if teh antifreeze is black then you know its a head gasket, also to check it do a compression test and if your head gasket is gone you'll have two cylinders side by side that are lower than teh other two, then you know that the compression is escaping into the other cylinder and you know were its blown.
If you do decide to change it just remember to scrape off all the old gasket, there cant be a single piece of it on there you have to get both surfaces super clean and smooth or it will just leak again when you get it all back together.
thanks guyz, i think you all are right because when i have looked under the hood(after it stopped smoking), i could see little puddles of oil, but when i touched it ,it was watery and smelled like coolant and oil, not to mention it did have that chocolate color, and the oil was replaced like a month ago.
im just hoping its the head gasket, and not the entire head!
so how much do you think a whole new head and all that other stuff cost ?
i know some junkers that have 1st gen engines and stuff, so that shouldnt be a problem to get.
Thanks again guyz, really appreciate it!
Well like I said earlier, a found a remanned head for $189 from the machine shop. I searched several junk yards trying to find one that would be worth rebuilding but I didn't find anything. The top end gasket kit (felpro) ran about $60 plus a throttle body gasket for $8. I also went ahead and put new a new water pump in, plugs, wires, cap and rotor.
All in all the entire job ran about $330, thats not counting antifreeze, gasket sealer, oil/filter and such. Still a load cheaper than it would have cost from a garage!
Dayton
'85 Cav sedan, 2.0
well , im just hopin its the head gasket!, cuz there is like oil and stuff leakin all around from it.
Thank God that my bird isnt my daily car or i'd be screwed, least i gotta truck to drive. But ya i have one of those car manuals you buy like at autozone, and it does look somewhat easy for me, so ill probably attempt it with a couple of my other motor buddiez.
Thanks again man ill keep u posted when ever i get it fixed and running again
heres some pix of my bird if you were wonderin what it looked like:
Sunbird pix at Car domain
well i found out that the head gasket is messed up and we r supposed to be lookin into the head to see if its warped, cracked or anything...there is a lot of crap to take off b4 u get to it!
