so, i had this car gifted to me. previous owner told me it drinks oil like a vampire to blood! he took it to Firestone, and they said that it might be the Valve Cover Gasket that is at fault.
(please feel free to correct me if and where i may be wrong…but also, use the numbers so i know where to check!!!) #1). we took it to get the tags. i gunned the gas pedal, and it died(i am assuming maybe a mixture problem…gas to air ratio) #2). it leaks oil like a CIV!!!, based on the info he gave me, i ordered the correct valve cover gaskets, got some black RTV sealant, cleaned the rim of the cover, also the below parts, put the RTV sealant on the cover, placed the cork and the bendy parts into their holes, then placed it back. waited the 24 hours to let it set.(also, as a side note, the bolts on the Valve cover were not even hand tightened, the timing belt cover was decent, but i wrenched the rest of them off without use of a wrench…makes me wonder…firestone…). #3). when driving it a short range after THINKING i fixed the oil leak problem, it started to die out(looking at #1, it usually happens if i punch it), this happened even if i was lightly engaging the gas pedal, babying it. the engine light no longer comes on saying LOW ENGINE OIL, but it is dead now. i do notice more oil on the ground than before…but no indicator lights.(also the old dip stick broke off the first time i used it, so gotta get a new one and pull the old one out…any recommendations would be helpful!!!)
what should i be looking for in the next round of fixing broken stuff, only to have it be broken even more!!!
my first assumption, is that air/fuel ratio is off. it tries to crank, sometimes it fires up after a while of letting it cool down, and then it just dies after about 3 to 5 seconds.
my second assumption is that maybe the spark plugs could be oil fouled.
i noticed that when i changed/fixed the Valve Cover Gasket, it didnt complain about low engine oil, but it did start smoking/burning oil. not sure if it was excess oil being burnt off the engine or not.
Whoever gave you this car did you no favor. The only way youll come out of this ok is to have it towed to a good independent mechanic and letting him do his job.
yes, but it is a convertable, and it was free!!!(its also red!)
my son loves the look of the car, and he and i arent afraid to fixer upper it!
im thinking about redoing the displays with some Raspberry Pi tech, maybe even touch screen stuff!!!
It wasnt FREE. it’s going to cost you hundreds of dollars (maybe more) to make this into a reliable daily driver for your son, and your continuing assumption that a bad fuel/air mixture is keeping it from running, without any evidence whatsoever, tells me you have neither the diagnostic skills or the mechanical ability to make this a do it yourself project.
i mean, i’ve changed out a saginaw 3 speed(3 on the floor) on a chevy G20 van…done most of my brake jobs, changed dont know how many tires, and yes, aether may have been involved…packed the crap out of a few wheel bearings…
If you take the vacuum hose off of the PCV it shoud run badly. If it doesn’t run worse then could it be that the valve cover gasket is leaking badly, or worse than it was before by letting air get sucked inside?
i changed the valve cover gasket, put RTV all over the cork, and the seals where they touch, also along the bendy thingy(IDK what they call THAT!) let it sit the 24 hours
Just reading your posts my unasked for judgement is that this vehicles problems are more than you can handle . I would spend the diagnostic fee of 100.00 to 150.00 and get a list of what needs to done .
Step 1 if you are going to run this engine is to make sure it has enough oil. A functioning dipstick or a reliable workaround will make this easy. Without that, you’ll need to drain the oil and put in the correct amount.
This 35 year old junk pile needs far more than just the parts swapping you have done to service cars in the past.
You want the oil use problem solved? Pull the engine and replace every seal and gasket in it. Do the rings, bearings and valves, too. Same for the transmission.
Now it might not run because the computer that runs it is likely a doorstop because all the capacitors inside have failed. You will need to find a rebuilder for that.
Then you might have something that runs worth about 1/10 of what you spent on it.
As has already been said… it was junk when it was new.