dj-t

Majority of the time when I start my car it hesitates and bogs for a while and then idles normally in the mornings. Also occasionally my oil light will stay on for a while when the motor is hesitating and bogging and when it does start it spits out smoke out of the exhaust and I can smell gas but a minute or so it idles fine again (this happens when the motor is warmed up and has been driven around). Did a little research thought it was the main really so I took a relay from my bros car, still the same thing. Checked timing, spark, spark plugs, spark wire, air filter, ignition coil and distributor cap no luck. What can it be? Any other possibility it could be something else. This is a 90 si hatch with a 91 ls. Thanks.

91ed9

bump for this guy

h224thgensedan

my friends hatch was doing the same thing at start up. His head gasket was shot so when he would shut his car off the cylinders would get antifreeze in them and when he would go to start the car back up it would sputter and smoke and then all the sudden it would be fine. It just took that little bit of time to burn all of it off.

dj-t

There is I think a little oil in my radiator fluid can't really tell but it does seem like it also it has all this brown goop around the cap (inside) and the area were the cap goes one to. What is this brown goop? Hope the previous owner did not put poop in it. Is there any other way that you can tell if the head gasket is bad cause visually it looks just fine. This happens to me during the warm and hot days only, in the cool weather the car starts fine even if driven for a long time. From what I read and search on here every one seems to say it is the relay for this kind of symptoms but my bros car starts up find every time so it can't be the relay cause we swap relays. My check engine light does not come on so hopefully no sensor problems. I guess the next thing to do is switch my ECU and find out if it is that before I start taking things apart. You guys think it can be something else instead of the head gasket cause I am stuck I don't know what it can be cheacked all the tings that I can think of already. Thanks for your help and suggestions.

justseeingifitistaken

the brown crap is more than likely water mixing with oil (blown Head gasket) maybe it hasnt gotten bad enough to really efect your performance/overheat but ti will get worse over time. i drove my first engine that came with teh car (blown hg already) for six months before i finally replaced it. just ran a littel hot in traffic and loss of power. not saying you shoudl do it or anything though.