poor running, no light, white smoke sometimes

[SenseiJ]

so I immediately thought I had a head gasket problem but I really don't know.

I bought a 98 sport 4.0 ohv for $300 bucks.
guys (mech) said its a stuck open injector which I dunno.

every now and then I get some white smoke from exhaust. very truthfully not near as much as i'd expect if it were in fact a head gasket problem.

I also noticed the oil is more brown, almost muddy looking which is almost a guarantee it's a head gasket issue.

But I really don't know.

I drove it home but power was pretty bad.

I JUST got it and haven't done much in the way of diagnosing.

I plan to do a compression test next and then pull injectors and ultrasonic clean them. make sure they function.

Pretty sure a compression test will tell me how the gaskets are.

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

OH. i should add, no codes as of yet

 

[EB4X]

Sounds pretty much like that....gaskets or cracked head(s).... did you roll the dice for $300 with the mindset it might just be injectors or something else minor and not planning on investing any real money if something serious... if so change the oil and coolant and ad a couple bottles of K-seal to coolant and see if you get lucky and can drive it for a year or two before it fully fails....otherwise plan on spending decent money / time replacing gaskets / heads. I'm assuming this is a backup beater vehicle....4X weekend warrior and Mounty is your daily... yes ?

 

[SenseiJ]

Sounds pretty much like that....gaskets or cracked head(s).... did you roll the dice for $300 with the mindset it might just be injectors or something else minor and not planning on investing any real money if something serious... if so change the oil and coolant and ad a couple bottles of K-seal to coolant and see if you get lucky and can drive it for a year or two before it fully fails....otherwise plan on spending decent money / time replacing gaskets / heads.

I really just wanted a roller as I plan to build a 347 backed with a tremec 3550 or something more rugged than a T5. I want this to be a strange road race type suv, something odd and uncommon but very fun.
I also want to experiment with BAR as i've read you can in fact get engine swaps legalized but there are some hoops to jump through. I want to see if it can be done.

Hard to turn down a vehicle you want, that "drives" for $300. I bought it knowing I may need to replace head gaskets and injectors(clean first). Even all that would be less than a few hundred I think.

If the heads need replacing I imagine I can find some pretty cheap at a local junk yard and hope I don't get more cracked ones(if in fact these are cracked).

That will give me a chance/excuse to do some gentle port work.

TLDR: I bought it knowing i'll spend money one way or another. If I can get it driving again for less than $1k i'm cool with it, that's $1300 invested total.

 

[SenseiJ]

well i pulled plugs and 2 looked bad, one was physical damaged like it was dropped before being installed, the gap was super small probbaly half what it should be. The other had an electrode so worn the gap was close to .070 - .080.

Also a quick compression check on just a few gave me a range of 120 psi to 170 psi on 3 cylinders. I didn't do all 6. But I think I want to try a better gauge before taking the readings seriously.

 

[SenseiJ]

So the previous owner was a little off in how long this has been sitting. Over a year apparently. I also failed to really pay attention to reg dates and such on paperwork. oh well.

I put fuel system cleaner in a tank of old gas. But instead of running it all out I went straight to replacing injectors once I got big improvements with the coil and plugs.

So now this poor Ex is trying to run on highly concentrated fuel system cleaner and probably bad gas.

It sounds SO bad but it is cleaning out a ton of carbon thats for sure. lol

I am afraid I might be ruining my o2 sensors(or cleaning)

Even the cat is having loud banging so I can only assume thats fluid collecting and the fumes created igniting from the heat. Essentially detonation.

It is improving slowly. Starting to run better and better.

But I'll be draining the tank as much as I can and adding 10 or so gallons(2 gallon can at a time) of fresh gas and hope for the best.

This is more a post for people to be careful and pay attention or you may cause more problems for yourself.