[Starscream]

On Labor day I decided to put some 87 gas in my car. Bad mistake I guess. When the 89 finally ran out this afternoon coming home from school and the 87 hit, the car started spitting and sputtering BAD. Like almost stalling, engine and car shaking bad. It always does this, unless I have the gas pedal on, pretty hard. Even at 55-65 it still does it, and when I let of the gas to slow down or stop I think its going to stall. So I went to wal-mart and bought some octane booster. I doubt its hit the engine yet, so no noticed difference yet. I also bought some new Autolite platinums.

Well I just got done putting in the plugs, and I notice it idles and goes into gear a little easier, but not much. It shakes especially bad in reverse. But now, I notice its burning a bit of oil! Damnit! If one fix doesn't lead to another problem!

Do you guys have any idea what is causing this (like more problems than the 87 octane gas)? I do have a steel air cone filter that claims to take in 926cfm (more than the K&N's) and was wondering if I have to adjust my air mixture thing?


Let me know please. Thanks

 

[1mz-fe]

can you tell where the oil is burning? is it like a leak on the outside and then the block heating up and burning, or is it internal? my truck did the former and it was as easy as replacing the gasket from which oil was leaking and then cleaning off the block with a degreaser. if it's internal, have fun opening up your wallet.

for the record, i've run 87 occasionally (not often) and i've never had a problem with it. maybe your gas has a little water in it.

 

[Si]

Mobil gas is renouned for having Water in it...

 

[Starscream]

Its burning oil by the exhaust, white smoke coming out. And I used HESS 87.

 

[Lafrad]

first of all, that's my last name, so don't dis the station. second of all.. the fuel pump re-circulates the entire system (it is a constatnt flow system, gas goes up to engine, the returns back) and if it were the gas, it would have happend in under a couple minutes of running (idling is included in that, flow of gas never changes) Octane booster would have had a similar effect (just as fast basically)

Ok, so if you believe all that stuff.. next problem is 'oil' burning. when you burn oil in the cylenders, the exhaust takes on a blue smokey color. So I probably wouldn't guess oil.

The thing it MIGHT be, (which I hope it isnt), is that it is a Head Gasget, a hole from the cooling jacket flows into the cylender. the Antifreeze mixture gives the exhaust a white foggy color, like a fog machine at a dance. also causes the car to run bad, because there is a loss of integrity in that cylender. (loss of compression/flood of water)

If it is the head gasget, you want to STOP driving the car ASAP. Antifreeze in the exhaust stream kills Catalyic converts, Oxygen sensors.. and causes many other problems. Another symptom (but doesn't always happen) of a bad head gasget is your anti-freeze taking on a black-ish/rusty color.

My advice, take it to a respectable garage/dealer, and get it checked out.

Good Luck,
Laf

[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: Lafrad ]

 

[Aggressor]

Good reply Lafrad...

Did you notice if any of your plugs looked wet, or any different when you changed them? That is a good indicator if you have an internal problem. If it is a head gasket, another symptom to look for are air bubbles in the anti-freeze.

If it was the gas, you might have at worst clogged your fuel filter, or fouled a plug.

Smoke is not a good thing.

 

[Starscream]

Thanks for the beefy reply Lafrad. I'll take it to a shop right after school.

My old champion plugs just had an orangy color to them, no build up or anything. My step dad said it looked like they had just been in there a long time. Only after I put in the new plugs did the white smoke start coming out the exhaust. Could a wrong plug gap have something to do with that? Or just conincedence that it started blowing smoke?

Thanks

 

[Lafrad]

well, if the whole problem occured AFTER you changed the plugs, the I would say one of the plugs you got now might be broken/dead. but I don't see why how a bad plug would make it smoke. I have run cars without wires on certian cylenders (serpentene belt broke, taking out 2 wires on the '87 olds... what a mess that was) and all it did was run like a riced out honda.... bad and slow.
If the plugs didn't change the running of the car, they just caused the white smoke to come out the tail-pipe, I would be kinda leaning more towards the head gasget... or something of the sort (maybe the intake manifold has a problem? I think the antifreze runs through there....) because the new plugs aren't yet fouled and the gas is able to burn and boil the antifreeze, when the fouled plug couldn't burn the gas...

Good luck, and I hope it is something simple.......

 

[Starscream]

I got my haircut today and my barber happens to be very skilled with cars, so I trust him. He told me a way I could test to see if it was a piston ring was to take of the radiator cap and start the engine to see if it was bubbling. He also said to take a screw driver and place it near each of the plugs and see if any sound different than the others or make weird noises.

Well the anti-freeze did not bubble at all and all the piston chambers sounded the same. I guess I can make a reasonable assumption that its not the piston rings.

He said I could have gotten some water in the gas or trash in the tank. The shaking goes away when I keep it above 2000rpm's and it does it less when I have it neutral and park when the rpm's are higher than in Reverse with little or no gas applied. I think I'm going to just make sure I always have a cell phone when I drive and just burn this tank of gas out. If it still does it on my next tank of 89, I'll know I have serious problems

 

[Lafrad]

howe many miles you got on the car? have you ever changed the timing belt or the intake manifold gasget? two things that these cars eat for lunch. also, you got re-formulated gas where you live? if you do, you can rule out water, because water is soluble in reformulated gas (it has the same stuff as 'HEET'... the stuff us northerners know so well). good luck. my advise, next time you fill up, goto a gas station on a REALLY busy corner, and put premium in. I know most people say the extra octane means crap for our cars, but the premiums has cleaners and lubricants in it too.. (most do)

 

[Starscream]

First off, I have 57,200 miles on the car. Since I have gotten the car, I have put 1200 miles on the car. My mom suggested it might be the timing belt also, I think I will run it by the shop after school today. I couldn't yesterday because my parents told me not to move it because of the piston thing. Now that thats ruled out, I can drive it.

Here is how I have gotten around that shaking, I just leave it in 3rd gear and don't go above 55mph. Since its always running at 2000-3000rpm, minimal shaking. If it does shake, it does it in little spurts for split seconds.

I will put premium in it the next time I fill up to clean it out.

 

[Si]

Darn I wish my mother knew what I timing belt was, I think she would think its a new type of watch to keep your pants up!

 

[buschman]

You could have lost a cylinder. I have done this twice. Both times it was the cheap spark plug wires they use. The spark would shoot through the wall of the spark plug wire jacket and ground out the cylinder. So the plug never got any juice. I isolated which cylinder was not firing by disconnecting spark plug wires one at a time. 5 out of 6 cylinders firing makes the engine shake. 4 out of 6 and the things will rattle your teeth Once you isolate the specific wire, pull it out and look for a tiny pinhole burn mark on it. Then all you got to do is replace the sparkplug wire.

I had this happen twice and it was "supposedly" due to condensation. I wash my engine compartment every time I wash my car so I guess it's conceivable.

Give this a try.

I doubt 87 octane gas would give you that much trouble. I mean hell my car is specially chipped to extract more power from 92-93 octane gas and I put 87 in all the time. I never have any trouble. I just loss power until the next tank of 93.

Buschman

[ September 06, 2001: Message edited by: Buschman ]

 

[Mopar4U]

Have you tried the basics yet?....check your codes.

 

[Dooley_96 Intrepid ES]

Bushman ...brother, pal of mine, good buddy and all that, so tell me about this chip ol' boy. I've been looking and looking for myself and have come up with nada.

 

[1mz-fe]

that's also something i'm interested in hearing.

 

[Starscream]

Come to find out guys, only 4 out of 6 injectors were working! And out of the 4 that were working, only 1 was working at 100%, the other 3 were barely working at all! 830 bucks to replace 5 injectors including labor. God that sucks ass, maybe the trep will finally work at 100% again. Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

 

[1mz-fe]

guess it pays to run a tank of injector cleaner once in awhile.

 

[Starscream]

Obviously the guy who had it before me never did. The first tank of gas I ever put in it, I bought some of that premium engine and fuel injector cleaner stuff that STP makes. It was the kind in the bigger silver bottle for like 10 bucks. You're supposed to put it in every 4000 miles, I only put on 1000 since I put that in there.