I swear on my life that the symptoms qualified as being the optispark going bad.. I was more than convinced.. Turns out it was a bad batch of gas..

I let it get down to E, drove it to a station while it was doing the slight studdering, filled it with the best I could get locally (93 octain), and it stopped doing all of what I was describing.. It's completly back to tire smoking normal...

I am terrably sorry for looking like a total dip S but it was doing exactly what it was doing when the first opti failed. Just that the first time, a fresh tank of gas didn't fix it.

I want to thank everyone who made suggestions..

Has anyone else here had bad gas? (in the tank of your car )

 

If the gas was bad it was prolly dirty too, change your fuel filter while you're at it!

 

Already working on it Thanks Again

 

dang, i wish mine was that simple, but I STILL cant figure whats wrong with my car after its opti swap

 

LOL Zack.. I've been following your story and you seem to be having a bit of trouble.. It's too bad I live on the opposite coast, or I'd drive over and try to help ya..

Does that white smoke coming from your intake (throttle body) have a smell?? Maybe vaporised fuel??

Why did you swap your opti in the first place?? (Bad I'm guessing)

Whats your budget like?? Can you drop $850 on an opti alternative that totally replaces the opti with it's own sensors and a coil pack setup??

Am I remembering correctly that you put in a cam while this was going on? (not quite sure about that)

Give us a short rundown on how it started and what youve done..

 

Do you know which station it was? So i can avoid it...

 

I've been trying to remember which station I got it from, but all I know is that it wasn't an Amaco(now BP).. Maybe a mobile. It was 3 nozzles for 3 octains, not just one nozzle for all 3. I hate them..)

I only buy from Red White and Blue's.. (Mobile, Exxon Amoco(now BP))

I've always got either
110 (unleaded and rarely) Speedway at 45th and Australian Ave. (WPB)
93 (regular top octain here) Any of the RWB's I listed. (Lake Worth)
89 (only when I'm broke. I notice no difference. no knock, no ping, no det, no hesitation..) Only from Mobile.. (Lake Worth)

It's been running fine as hell since the refill, so it's been narrowed down to that. Just my luck..

 

Hmm maybe it was a one time thing. Oh and since when is amaco BP? Hmm i had not notice they changed or were changing.

 

All of the Amoco's are changing to BP colors, logo and other stuff..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/...ile/149139.stm

 

to answer your questions, the white smoke showed once, and that was when I let it run and stall itself out. IT was a thin white smoke, I dont recall the smell(i cant tell much smells anyways on cars)

I changed the opti because of suspected coolant leakage on it after doing the TB bypass(i mean, lots of coolant dripping down past that when I looked under the car)

Before the swap, car would start up, then die.

After the swap, car will run great on its sirst start of the day( or when its sat for a good amount of time). Then, as it warms up, idle drops to like below 500, boucnes down more while sputtering and shaking violenty, sounds like a mean cam is in there.

My uncle talked to a mechanic and he told him that it sounds like theres too much air in the cooling system.

I went to go bleed it some more, as I was bleeding the valve in the stat housing, bubbles were forming in the top of the radiatior, and it started sputtering on me.

oh yea, and my budget is like $150 bucks. If i have a cracked head, im seriosuly ****ed.

 

When it's sputtering and such, what's your temp gauge at?

If it's not pegged, it's probably not air bubbles.. When I purge the coolant, I open both valves, and wait for the stuff to come rushing out.. If you are doing this after letting it sit for a night, you should be able to get it purged before it heats up too bad..

You got a scanner or something to see what's going on?

Maybe the new opti is bad, but I doubt that..

I feel your budget pain..

That white smoke might of been fuel vapor.. I've seen it a lot on older carbed cars when you dont get it started on the first crank.. Or it sputters and dies and the fuel doesnt get sucked in, but more or less just goes all over the place.. It does look like smoke.

There's other ways to purge the air, but they are not safe and only I'd do them on my car..

 

my grandpa was the one in the car turning it on and off, when it started sputtering last coolant bleed, he told me it was at around 210.

but previous times, the needle would be around 160.

I should get access to a scanner wednesday

this is driving me crazy. I just want to sell the damn thing now

 

Don't take this the wrong way..

Does your grandpa have parkinson's?

If so, he might of had his hand on the key while he was having a nasty spell.. On Off real quick makes a jumpy engine..

Let us know what the scanner tells you..

 

it just keeps getting better

I went outside just now, opened the oil filler cap, a nice white milky substance in the cap, and some water sitting in the filler neck.


Muprhy's Law taking full affect on me

 

Holy S Zack..

That's got to be a blown head or intake gasket.. Or something.. I'm hoping it's the intake. It's a known problem and more easily fixed. : /

Oh well.. Gives you a chance to P&P the intake.. Paint it up as well..