Ok, i have a slight coolant leak into the combustion chamber. Its not near as bad as most ive seen, and i can live with it till ive come up with the 900$ for the master rebuild kit (money atm is replacing/fixing stuff to make it streetable).

The car was a parts car, and is in really good shape (paint is bad, needs MINOR body work no biggie) and it was painfull to see a car like this set in the guys front yard.

I harrassed this guy literally for 3 months to sell me the car as is, so i paid 500$ for it, and attempted to stab the tranny back into the engine myself at work (autozone) and couldnt get it done in one night as i had hoped. So i had to pay a shop to tow and install the trans (i paid 220). After battery, window switches, install of trans, and various smaller odds and ends, i have 800$ invested into this car.

It drives pretty well (no insurance so i only moved it shop to home, insurance comes thurs).

I know my way around piston engines pretty well, and im not an idiot (2 years at autozone), but ive not been able to (girl/work/rain/school) look at the engine any.

91 FC3 N/A (i want turbo)

I know the most common cause of coolant burn is housing seals, but it doesnt smoke that badly, is there any other way coolant can enter the combustion chamber? ive not noticed any coolant lines heading to the intake like some GM and ford motors.

Im sure its going to need a rebuild, but it runs fine other than the smoke.
I just dont want to invest in a rebuild kit yet, if theres a chance it could be another leak.

But other than that, its an outstanding car, there are some parts missing.
The sunroof dont open, the headlights open smoothly dont sag and are timed together.

All in all, im proud to have saved an FC (even if its not tII) from a stupid demise.

Anyone have a picture of the dash btw? i have a missing component right side of the steering wheel, huge box with a pig tail behind it.

 

An easy way to check and see if you have a bad coolant seal is to start the car with the radiator cap off and look for bubbles coming up in the coolant. Usually they will look like little champagne bubbles. If you have bubbles, then you most likely have an internal coolant seal failure.

 

On an N/A the only way to be burning coolant is a coolant seal like you stated. You might try some good head gasket repair, they have that single step stuff now at the zone. I have used it before and it worked...