k guys i'm pretty sure its the headgasket but i still have doubts and i won't touch it until tomorrow.

anyways i start up my car earlier to pick up my GF and it idled really low and started blowing black stinky smoke at the back. so i rev it up a little to see what happens and it stalled ! i looked under the hood and everything looked fine so i go ahead and take off cuz i'm late. every now and then when i have to stop it stalls ! and then white smoke started coming out of the exhaust (coolant for sure). i was thinking broken rod cuz it happened to me before but it wasn't making a loud knocking noise so it can't be that. and it sounds like there's no compression so i'm pretty sure its the headgasket.....what do you guys think it is ??

i'm going to a cabin this weekend and i gotta take my car so i have to fix it before saturday PLS HELP !!!

 

That's where I'd begin - pull the valvecover, check everything over, then pull the head and make sure it's all OK.

 

its weird though cuz it runs fine just bogs a little. no weird noises so i don't think the motor is toast. plus isn't it usually a blown headgasket when burnt coolant/oil start coming out of the tail pipe ?? i figure the low idling is caused by the low compression......and plus an hour before it happened the car was running excellent and all of a sudden i have a blown HG.........does this make any sense ?? man i hate it when something goes wrong with my car. i don't even abuse it even after the mpfi swap

almost the same thing happened before when the timing belt went on my first EF. i drove it home fine then next morning the belt is gone......

 

hey man I had a similar problem. I had a 90 si with a ZC. Drove it everyday didnt think anythign was wrong. Then one day a friend mentions that I have white smoke coming out all the time....so sure enough we look in the radiator and it starts bubbling over and there's oil in it. So having been in the situation and not really knowing FOR SURE if it was head gasket, I changed it any way. Only took a couple hours and problem was fixed. You can buy full gasket kits also ie Intake mani and exhuast mani along with a bunch of other misc gaskets to install and make you sleep better. Anywho hope this helps

 

i've changed headgaskets before so it won't take long for me to do it but i guess its so bad that its affecting my idle. i'll pull the head tomorrow when the motor is nice and cold.

i need more answers though ! would a bad heasgasket affect the idle ??

 

It would affect most things, yes. Less compression. Here's a test: If you pull your radiator cap off with the car running and there's a steady stream of bubbles popping up - you have a blown headgasket and combustion chamber pressure is leaking into your coolant system.

 

thanks guys i will do the test tomorrow ! but there has to be someone here that can give me a peace of mind that its for sure the headgasket ?? keep em coming!

 

oh yeah i just remembered ! earlier i took out my TB to clean the inside. in the process, i accidentally ripped a hole in one of the vacuum lines when pulling it off. i'm not sure which vacuum line but it's not the red braided hose but the other one on the TB....maybe map sensor ?? i'm thinking thats why my idle is screwed ?

 

k guys nevermind ! i found and fixed the problem!!! the vacuum line i was previously talking about totally ripped apart from the fitting so there was a vacuum leak everything is back to normal....idle is fine no more smoke ! thanks guys and sorry for my stupidity