I asked someone to stand outside and watch me go by at WOT to see if any smoke came from the exhaust, and sure enough there's white smoke coming from both ehaust tips. It doesn't happen under normal driving or while I'm in park revving. And every time after I floor it there's this smell.. It kinda smells like gas but I'm not 100% sure cuz it smells a little different.


And another question, say you got your engine rebuilt 3k miles ago, if you replaced your headgaskets then would they go bad already? I have a hard time believing the people before me with the car rebuilt it and used the old headgaskets. So I'm thinking there was no rebuild to begin with

Word of advice to anyone that wants to buy a car that doesn't know much about cars, take a mechanic with you or get screwed over like I did!

 

Head Gaskets won't go bad in 3k miles. First, are you losing coolant? If so, change your oil, if it comes out like chocolate milk...well you already know the answer... If no coolant is lost, then it may be your transmission modulator is bad... But it sounds like the motor was NOT rebuilt...$ucks

 

The radiator is a little low, and the oil is dark because it's time for an oil change, they "said" they "changed the oil" after the rebuild "3k miles ago", but then again, no rebuild who knows when the oil was changed last. Could be ****ing 30k miles ago for all I know and I do plan to change the oil by the end of the week.. Don't have the money right now.

The part in your post "well you already know the answer" what do you mean by that?

 

if the oil is muddy like a milkshake you ave a head gasket problem

look in your coolent over flow bottle. oil will rise to the top.

unscrew the rad cap (with cold engine) and see if the coolent is dark there.

if not then take of the overflow bottle and dump and refil with new. you can try adding a bottle of stop leak into the rad before you fill the overflow to maybe bandaid a small leak.

the exhaust will smell sweet like sugar if its burning coolent. if its smelling like gas you may have an ignition problem. check plugs and see if they are crusty white. = coolent problem. there are pics in the back of the haynes that show plug conditions.

take off the cap and rotor and see how the terminals look, maybe take a metal file and rub them till theyre shiny to save buying new.

you check your compression? its an easy thing to do.

 

I'll check that stuff tomorrow morning. When I did check the oil today it wasn't muddy, it was dark but that's because it needs to be changed.

I don't know how to check my compression, or even know what is involved in doing so. I've never worked on a car before besides changing oil, plugs and wires, just little stuff.

 

then again, its not too uncommon to go a little rich (the engine, on its own) when you get on it and dump a little smoke that might only be a little grey instead of black. if it was a blown headgasket, you would know, for sure!

 

to check the compression you need to borrow a little compression toold thats an air pressure guage with a tube and a aprkplug thread on the other side. you thread it into a spark plug hole an then turn the motor over a couple times with the coil unplugged so it doesnt start. then you look at the air pressure. as long as the compression is above 130ish (160-180 is brand newish) and all the cylinders are really close to each other youre fine. now if one is slightly off, or to see if youre rings are worn you can drop a few drops of oil into the cylinder to seal the ringsfor a second to re test them.

i would start testing all the things you can for free or cheap, and do a cheap tuneup. replacing and testing the least expensive things first makes sence.

and if you can get to a wrecker when you see a car like yours, take all the sensors you can. they are good for spares, testers, and for when your check engine light comes on. sometimes i take the spark plug wires if they look new, because i check my plugs often and sometimes i break the wire apart from the boot by accident. if i didnt have some spares id have to buy a new set and they are 80$ here. wreckers charge 5$