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@Dan Martinic I left the three wire jumper in place yesterday while the car was running. I'll see what I can do to give your recommended test a shot.
@fast951 By the now the gas is probably a year old. Not ideal, I know. Part of the problem with all of this is that the owner's facility is not conducive to working on cars; it's more of a display space, if you know what I mean. Normally I would just take it to my house but I really don't want to drive it in the state it's in. Regardless, I'll try to figure out how to swap the gas out.
If I were you I'll try a quick test to see if all the injectors are working. remove the four bolts that hold the fuel rail in place ( make sure not to drop anything in the intake), leave injector electrical harness connected and also the fuel lines, lift the rail 2-3 inches and ask for someone to crank the car. Check to see if you have uniform pulverization on all injectors. I think you may have one ore more fuel injectors blocked.
@alex_cristocea It does sort of seem like it might not be hitting on all four. I saw something somewhere about placing the injectors over four small water bottles to check that they are operating as they should. I also saw something about using a noid light. All things on my ever-growing list to try.
@alex_cristocea It does sort of seem like it might not be hitting on all four. I saw something somewhere about placing the injectors over four small water bottles to check that they are operating as they should. I also saw something about using a noid light. All things on my ever-growing list to try.
Too bad you were not closer to Milwaukee... I recently purchased a professional fuel injector cleaner and can test a wide range of settings...
If this continues to be a focus area, I can run them through my tester at no cost - just cover shipping.
@fast951 You asked if I checked the plugs. I checked for spark. Today I pulled one out.
This is the number one plug (at least I think it is, it's the one closest to the firewall). There's sort of a creamy substance on it and it's in a very sorry state indeed. Somehow it was still sparking.
I'm not anxious to put a new one in and have it happen all over again. Any ideas what's going on here?
I'm going to pull the rest here in a minute and see what they look like.
Edit: The rest of the spark plugs looked perfectly fine. Also, I think I can see that milky substance in the number four combustion chamber.
@fast951 You asked if I checked the plugs. I checked for spark. Today I pulled one out.
This is the number one plug (at least I think it is, it's the one closest to the firewall). There's sort of a creamy substance on it and it's in a very sorry state indeed. Somehow it was still sparking.
I'm not anxious to put a new one in and have it happen all over again. Any ideas what's going on here?
I'm going to pull the rest here in a minute and see what they look like.
Edit: The rest of the spark plugs looked perfectly fine. Also, I think I can see that milky substance in the number four combustion chamber.
Spark plug does not look good. The milkshake color is concerning (usually coolant+oil mix).
Inspect your oil and coolant. If no sign of mixing, continue to next step.
- remove DME relay to eliminate fuel & ignition- examine the cylinder with a bore scope. You are looking for scratches. May need to bring piston to BDC to get a good view of the whole cylinder. If no scratches continue- run a compression test, better yet a leak down test. You want to compare results of all 4 cylinders.
@slivel I was wondering if it maybe it was head gasket. I think someone else in here mentioned that as well.
@fast951 When you advise removal of the “DME relay to eliminate fuel & ignition”, are you suggesting I then crank the engine to blow out the chamber to carry out an inspection?
Another break in the action is imminent; my kids’ (two week!) spring break started this afternoon and they won’t have the patience for all of this testing.
@slivel I was wondering if it maybe it was head gasket. I think someone else in here mentioned that as well.
@fast951 When you advise removal of the “DME relay to eliminate fuel & ignition”, are you suggesting I then crank the engine to blow out the chamber to carry out an inspection?
Another break in the action is imminent; my kids’ (two week!) spring break started this afternoon and they won’t have the patience for all of this testing.
Your cylinder numbering is backwards. Number one in at the front of the engine and number four is at the firewall. Also it seems with these engines that when the head gasket fails, it is often at the number four cylinder. Some have suggested that number four runs hotter due to the coolant flow in the head. If you are boosting higher than stock and don't have proper mixture, then detonation may happen and compromise the head gasket (or worse). A steam vent line is also said to help keep coolant temps more consistent through the head.
You remove the DME relay so you do not get fuel or spark when doing a compression test. Do not turn the engine with the starter (for compression test) till you check the bore (look for scratches on the wall, any sign of coolant or ???. If anything abnormal, stop till you figure out the next step.
I would do a leak down test vs. a compression test. But you may not have access to a leak down tester.
You do not want to cause any carbon or junk getting stuck between piston & cyl wall.
Tried the three wire jumper this afternoon and there was no change in the running condition. So I guess that means the DME isn't bad.
The car ran long enough for me to get out and see what I could see, which wasn't anything obvious. Although I think I can safely say it's not condensation I'm seeing. The smoke from the exhaust was almost acrid.
You're right, the insulation around the wires going to the injectors is very brittle. I haven't pulled the boots off yet to see what's going on inside. All of that wiring seems to be incorporated into a much larger harness that goes inside the car. Is the injector harness somewhat easily replaced? Are new ones available?
Oddly, there seems to be some water (blue arrow in the photo below) in the passenger side of the undertray below the engine. Haven't noticed it before and can't tell where it's coming from either.
Like I mentioned before, and as Fast951 just stated, it looks like coolant in your oil. Looking at the pic you provided, the location of that leak suggests your oil cooler housing gasket is shot.
i suggest you don’t run the car anymore, if that is in fact coolant you will ruin bearings.
Like I mentioned before, and as Fast951 just stated, it looks like coolant in your oil. Looking at the pic you provided, the location of that leak suggests your oil cooler housing gasket is shot.
i suggest you don’t run the car anymore, if that is in fact coolant you will ruin bearings.
Agree on not running the engine. Perhaps there is intermixing going on here, but the photo seems to show coolant on the plug. There are limited ways for coolant to get into the combustion chamber and if it is coming from contaminated oil then there are bigger problems. If oil/coolant mix is reaching the combustion chamber then rings may not be sealing. Could be broken rings, scored cylinder walls or worse. As John Vitesse suggested, a borescope would be a very good idea as well as compression check or leak down. Hopefully this is just a blown head gasket coupled with some external leaks.
My .02 Dont be in denial, after seeing the pics there is something terribly wrong with this engine.
At this point it really doesnt matter if its a headgasket /oil cooler whatever, the gaskets are 35 years old. You may well fix one issue and the next one is not far behind.. yank the engine, replace all gaskets/ and inspect bearings ect.. do the belts rollers wp you WILL save time. Otherwise issues will constantly arise and you will be twisting and contorting yourself in ways you never thought possible to fix things one by one.. do it once do it right. Yea it will cost a few bucks but you will learn allot, the community is here to help you.. but it will put an end to constant misery. I did it with my 86 and for the past 8 years all i do is drive it… i had another 86 that i “ piece- mealed” and every other weekend i was fixing another leak… an injector that failed.. a coolant issue.. pure misery..
03-03-2022, 07:29 PM
