Just recently my brother has been driving his 93 z28 (we just bought it a week ago) and it ran fine, nice and strong. But a couple days ago he started noticing this weird sweet smell. It was rare, on and off smell, so we didn't think much of it. Than we started noticing performance loss. By performance loss i mean power loss. We hear the engine reving and getting louder but the car doesn't torque or go as strong or as fast as it usually did. We don't really know what it could be, everything looks fine under the hood, i checked the oil it was fine but the coolant was really really low. Than i saw when the car was idle, that vapor/smoke was coming out of the exhaust. It was whitish grey so that means its related to coolant right? We didn't flush the radiator but we put in new coolant. We took it around the block, exhaust didnt smoke n e more but the smell and performance loss was still there? Does anyone know or guess what the problem could be? I'll give any specs that you need on the car.
Thanks


Edit- Sry if this is in the wrong part of the forum

 

Get the car to normal temp by driving.Bring it home and let it cool some(140).Remove the plugs,and spin it over.See if there is any spray coming from any cyl.Then do a compression test and that should tell if something is wrong internal(guess:head gasket). To further check it before tearing it down,pressure test the radiator.That will tell you if the coolant loss is external or in the engine.The coolant loss may be a hose clamp or a hose,the power loss may be something different and not related to the coolant loss.

 

^
I'll defintly try that tomorrow, im taking it to a mechanic i know so i'll check out everything there with him. I really hope its not the head gaskets but thanks anyways. I'll post more about the problem when i identify whats causing the performance loss.

 

Let us know.

 

what kinda smell....somthign like sulfur.....could be ur cats clogging

 

Is it smoke or steam, could also be a blown head gasket, does it smoke all the time? Check your coolant level.

 

Im goin to the mechanic in a lil bit but it looks like steam thats why we checked the coolant and saw it was almost empty. Than when we put coolant in, it didnt smoke n e more but the performance loss was still there. Lol btw you guys are scaring the crap out of me when you mention that it could be a blown head gasket.

 

Sarge,
It could be just an external leak.
It could be a cracked block or head.
There are a lot of "could be's,just trying to guess,like we are, is no substitute for a real check.

 

The sweet smell was coolant...

Its a blown head gasket. Hence the water vapor out of the tailpipe and reduced coolant level.

That's my guess though, classic symptoms.

 

Yea ive been looking up on it, not all the symptons fit but some of them do. The car is at the mechanic right now going through some tests. Im praying that its not a blown head gasket. I would not be able to replace it myself so id have to get it proffesionaly done, which would cost a lot, ive heard round 1-2k, is that about right? Can anyone give me a close estimate to replacing it?

I'll post what if it was a blown head gasket or not at the end of today hopefully. Thanks again guys.

 

It shouldn't be 1K.If it is shop around and see.

 

Woo! Its not the head gasket, the mechanic ran the test, no leaks, nothing their fine as of now. So he looked into it more and they think its the relay that just fried/malfunctioning which was causing the car to overheat(hence performance loss) and the problems with the vapor. So its nothing bad supposedly, the part is on the way, it should get to the mechanic in a couple hours and than they'll install it and we'll test the car to make sure that was the problem. Does that sound about right to you guys? Either way im just happy its not the gasket

 

Probably the fan relay.

 

Yea so itd be around 150 for the part im guessing and than installation i'll deal with.

 

LOL, $150 for a relay? You can get them for $15 bucks at auto parts stores. I hope your joking unless that includes his diagnosis fee, because all they do is plug in.