Problem please HELP

[Y2Z's]

Hello, I driva a 89 cavalier z24 with the 2.8. Today i was driving down the road and my car started to constantly misfire and blow whitesh smoke, not oil smoke but very potent smell of gas. Car will run very sluggish and drive but has problems starting. I replaced the plugs, wires, coils and fuel filter last month. Up untill today car has been running excellent

[geoffinbc]

Excess white smoke indicates coolant burning. You may hve a leak. It would also explain the slugishness.

Fuel = Dark Grey/Black Smoke
Oil = Black smoke with Blue hue
Watter/Coolant = White Smoke

[Y2Z's]

you mean an internal leak like head gasket, or intake manifold gasket. How would i tell which is bad.

[geoffinbc]

Well it could be either. Cant tell over the internet.

A more common leak would be the intake gasket. Head gasket failures are not very common on this family of engines.

[Y2Z's]

that is true my 3400 lost the LIM gasket twice. By any chance would it be the same gasket.

[geoffinbc]

Nope
The new 3400's use an injection molded plastic gasket. The old motors use a paper type gasket.

[Y2Z's]

thanks im going to pull the plugs tomorrow and go looking. It looks to be easier than the 3400.

[Y2Z's]

i pulled the plugs today and four of them have a dark liquid and smell heavy of unburnt fuel, the other two are fine. The three plugs in the rear and the right side front are the wet ones. ANY IDEAS are appreciated.

[Doubt_Incarnate]

do a compresion check, my 2.8 had no probs till the head gaskets went at 142Kmi, bt it has iron heads. if the cylinders are sucking in coolnt, then the fuel/air probably wont burn correctly and you'll smell the gas.

[Y2Z's]

how do you go about this, i have access to the guage. Dang another Busted-Knuckle project in the making, my hands need time to heal.

[Doubt_Incarnate]

yeah, busted knucles, lol.

when they heal up, you want to disconnect all the plug wires, or do something to keep the motor from tring to start. i usually pull all the plugs so the starter just has to fight one cylinder at a time so the battery is good for longer, thread the guage/adapter into the plug hole, and crank it (or have a friend crank it) for a few revolutions or so to get the pressure reading. its easiest with 2 people. make sure every cyclinder is cranked for same amount of time (revolutions) or things wont match up for sure. i think compression should be at or around 90psi stock, every cylinder is supposed to be within 5% of each other.

[Y2Z's]

today my freind looked at the car and told me to check the ICM and ignition first, how do i check the ICM with a voltmeter and what am i looking for, thanks again guys. He has a real nice compression tool for his drag car but he said 4 cylinders leaking is crazy.

[Doubt_Incarnate]

im not sure on how to check the icm, sorry, im retarded when it comes to most things electrical. maybe autozone can help you there, but they once said my battery was bad and i changed out the alternator (thier, alternator) and everyything was fine.

youll need to pick up a haynes manual, or go to the library and check out a chiltons.

[Y2Z's]

Hello again today I rana comp. test everything is good. Also checked each plug for spark with all of them out, fine. But when I had them out I noticed when i crank the engine the back cylinders are spraying fuel, some in drops. The front seem to be dry. I really think it is a fual probck in lem it was running after i put the plugs back in and was spitting fuel out the muffler. ANY IDEAS..

[Doubt_Incarnate]

stuck injectors or a bad prom in your ecm. maybe even a bad fpr, if the vac diaphram ruptured maybe its sucking a ton of gas into the manifold, i dunno.