Do it yourself

Quote: Dalex64

Upon further review, now that it is warmer, the smoke coming out of the tailpipe of my car is white and sweet smelling.

A brief search of the internet indicates that the problem is most likely coolant getting somewhere it isn't supposed to be, could be because of a bad head gasket or a cracked block.

Any estimates on how much it would cost for a mechanic to diagnose the cause, and how much it might cost to repair?

Only if it is not a cracked block, that is.

Look closely on your oil dipstick to see if there is any coolant/anti-freeze globules on the stick. Then look in your radiator to see if there is any oil drops floating on the top of the radiator tank. That has always indicated a blown head gasket.

Cost depends on who and what is being done to your car. It may be cheaper to look around at wrecking yards or parts locator service or even craiglist and find a whole motor from a wrecked or salvaged car then do the repair. I never liked putting used parts up against old ones inside a block.

That's classic head gasket. To confirm, you might be able to remove spark plugs and take a look inside. If you can see cylinder walls or cylinder head, they should be pretty blackened. If you see shiny metal, it's because they have been steam cleaned by the coolant =p Or, perhaps easier, is checking coolant level. If you have no leak yet it's falling...

Head gasket repair is one of those slippery slopes. A head gasket generally fails due to overheating. What happens is the block gets so hot it warps, so the head and the block no longer mate perfectly smooth. This causes a microscopic gap and the gasket gets blown out by compression. Firstly, the overheating is caused by an unrelated problem, typically a faulty or tired water pump. That's gonna need replacing and that costs money. Second, now that it's warped, it needs to be milled smooth again. That means it needs disassembling and time in the CNC machine, both of which are labor intensive (and at $70 - $90 per hour, labor will be your biggest cost). The gaskets themselves will be a couple hundred.

You should be able to get a diagnosis close to free. If not, tell him to pound sand. As far as repair, assuming just the above, I'd think that $1,200 - $1,500 would be a pretty good backyard deal, but I'd expect to pay more. Like, $2k+. I wouldn't put much faith in my numbers, but you can guaran-damn-tee you're spending over a grand.

Is it back-firing or missing? Was it ever determined if there was water in the fuel from sitting out in the snow?

If the best repair estimate I can get from you guys is over $1000 then I'm not going to bother - it really isn't worth it, even if that $1000 involved getting and installing a whole new motor. At that point I'd be more inclined to spend $2000 - $5000 for a whole new used car with fewer problems, and fewer imminent problems.

I'll check for peanut butter in the chocolate, er, oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil.

Getting the plugs out is where I ran into difficulties last time. I searched my house and couldn't find a piece of 1/4" tubing to use to get the vertical spark plug back into its home.

As for water in the gas - that is possible. I bought a little bottle of Dry-Gas and put it into the tank about a week ago. I started the car last night and it easily started within a couple of revolutions.

It is not backfiring or missing now. It is running slightly rough, but it doesn't seem to be missing.

There is a pretty good chance for warping or even a cracked block. Like I said before, the thing burns a lot of oil, and my wife may or may not have let the oil get too low for too long. It isn't making any puddles on the ground, though, so I think any cracks, warps, or holes are all on the inside. I don't remember if we replaced the water pump on that car or not. If we did, it would have been maybe 100,000 miles ago, so really it is due again. The other car started making a nice puddle when the water pump seal failed like it is supposed to when the thing is too old.

I really think the car has had it, but the reason I brought it up again is to make sure I'm not overlooking anything cheap or obvious.

If you got a junkyard motor and picked it up yourself (no delivery) and swapped it yourself, $500 is not out of the question for total out of pocket expenses. You might could even do it cheaper; it's all about what you can find. But even if you got a $300 motor and saw that it was good, you'd be up and over $1,200 to have it installed just because of cost of labor.

It's not water in your gas. To have enough water in the gas to cause a constant white cloud would be so much water that the car wouldn't run. And since it's been doing it for a long time, it would mean a good bit of water is constantly getting into your tank. That's just not reasonable to suspect.

So... enjoy the new car ;)

Replaced the water pump in the 96 Pontiac
last week. Pump was 50, labor was 150. I've
had this car for 12 years, fixing it is cheaper
than getting a new one. In the last 3 years,
a radiator, serpentine belt, gas tank, water
pump, major brake job last summer. 152K
on the odo, 3300 6 engine. Burns no oil
and it's so clear on the dipstick I can barely
see it. It is almost 20 years old, though.

All the talk about the aquarium made me think I better freshen up the woodworking skills. And since I just sit around all GD day anyway, I decided to sink a bit of cash into materials and build a generic table.

I'm shooting for 6'x 3'x 32". And of course, I have almost no appropriate tools for the job. But who cares, right? I didn't have appropriate tools to build a race car, either, and that thing hasn't fallen apart yet =p

I went and got 2 - 2"x 8"x 12". Cut em in half, and those will make 4 boards for my table top. Took a bit of time to sift through the selection to get ones that weren't warped, cracked, or knotted up too bad, but me and the little one got it done. Next was about 18' of 1"x 4" to make sort of a frame for it to sit on while giving me something to connect legs to. This went off without a hitch. The problem was the legs. I was just going to use raw stock for cost reasons, but square lumber is godawful expensive. Plus I thought 2"x 2" would be too slim for such a heavy table, and 4"x 4" is obviously way too big. So 3"x 3" it was going to be, but they had no 3"x 3". Either way I sliced it, the damned legs were going to be the most costly part of this, so I just sprung for some actual table legs. Wasn't but a few bucks more than raw stock, so do it and be done with it =p

I came home to realize the batteries for my cordless tools had gotten unplugged and were flat. Not wanting to wait, I cut the 2"x 8" with a jigsaw =p Twasn't the best, but I'm gonna have a lot of sanding to do anyways; I'll just add the ends to the list.

I had already drawn out my design, and it called for building the top as a unit, then the legs and frame as a unit, then mate them together. But since this is the Good Enough Garage (slash Woodshop), I didn't really have any measurements figured out for the framing. So I figured the table top comes first. Once that's done, I can suss out how to build the frame under it.



Since the top is just boards, I wanted something to keep them all tied together and level, basically as if it were one piece of wood. I designed (lol) the frame to do as much of this as possible, but I figured I'd go all Amish on it. That meant wood glue and dowels.



This was pretty time consuming. I don't even have a square, so measuring to specific areas to drill the holes for the dowels consisted of some 12 different measurements, then drawing line between the dots to pinpoint where to drill. Good times. Also being without a saw, cutting the dowels involved the use of a stout hunting knife and a large hammer. Like I said - Amish =)

Some 5 hours later, I had the top completely assembled. There are a few issues, but mostly I'm happy with it. All of my dowels went in tight the first time around; no re-measuring or re-drilling. The boards aren't exactly perfectly aligned, but I assumed that would happen anyway. Raw lumber ain't never exactly true. But what I got now suffices for what I need at this point, which is the basic top to measure off for the framing.



Next I'll likely sand the bottom flat and smooth to get a good mate with the frame. Once framing is done, I'll flip it over to process the top, giving it a smooth, even finish. That's certainly going to be the most laborious and time consuming part, but if you want it to look good, I suppose you gotta put in the time. After that I need only stuff the legs on and I'll be done. We'll see how it all goes =)

If we lived in the same area I would give
you my band saw. I haven't used it in
15 years and probably never will.

Quote: Evenbob

If we lived in the same area I would give
you my band saw. I haven't used it in
15 years and probably never will.

Bah. A band saw is one of those things I often find myself coveting. That and a press / drill press.

But I don't mind. I don't really have a shop anyways (as you can see, I'm building this table on the floor of my basement). And those tools do take up a lot of space. Plus it doesn't hurt to get creative to get a job done. Granted, I could never profit from it, as my way takes way too long. But it is sort of "fun" building things in an unorthodox fashion.

Of course, sitting on concrete for 5 hours is no fun. But we do what we have to =)

Quote: Face

But it is sort of "fun" building things in an unorthodox fashion.

I do that occasionally, but my results are more like so: