Hi guys,

I start the car up (90 n/a) starts rough to begin with, I have to pump the gas pedal just to get it to catch. It has been this way for a little while, (couple of months) but otherwise ran just fine. Recently, it has been increasingly hard to start, taking longer and more pumps of the gas pedal. Today, I go to start it up and head to work, it starts, but the exhaust smells almost like burning plastic, and when I popped the hood, I can notice small plumes of what looks like smoke and smells again like the plastic smell coming from the back of the engine.... I shut it off to inspect where it is coming from. I jacked the car up and took a look around, I can't see anything that looks particularly burning or burned up. The smoke stops damned near immediately after the car is shut off, so I am thinking maybe that is an exhaust leak that I am seeing. I start the car up again, to see whats going on. This time, I do not get smoke in the engine bay, but my coolant reservoir basically exploded coolant out of the top of it, boiling hot crazy coolant geyser of doom. I am assuming this means that the rad is clogged, and the only way to circulate is to blow it out the path of least resistance?

Anyone else had a burning plasticy smell coming from exhaust?

The Doom Geyser, any thoughts?

Thanks in advance guys.

 

That's odd because I would assume you've blown a coolant seal and the smell (probably the smoke also) is burning antifreeze.
Pressure test your cooling system to confirm.

 

Lets say I have blown the coolant seal, that is a rebuild to fix it right?

If this is the case, I am thinking the car is going to be parts

 

Don't part the car out. Sell it to someone who will fix it.

Do the champagne test and tell us the results.

 

If I am not mistaken, basically that is top the rad off, let the car heat up to normal temp and check for air bubbles coming out of the top fill-port?

 

^ Just to explain it to OP, basically start the car and let it warm up with the rad cap off near the thermostat. Once the engine is warm and the thermostat open (i.e. coolant circulating), look into the hole and see if it's bubbling.

edit: you beat me to it, lol.

 

sounds like a bad coolant seal to me.

parting out the car isn't really going to get you much more than if you just sold it complete unless it has a lot of aftermarket parts on it.

 

Yup, Bubbles.... looks like the coolant seal is the culprit. I love this car... like really love it... but I do not have the money to invest into a rebuild, and as much as I would love to do the rebuild myself, I do not have the time/space/tools. This is truly a sad day for me...

Thanks for all of your help.

Hopefully someone will pick her up and love her as I have.

 

So, sorry for the double post, but I just wanted to say that since I was looking at selling the car, I decided that since people wanted to offer me less than 400 bucks for the car, that I was going to try the liquid aluminum and lucas oil stabilizer. $14 and about an hour of draining and refilling coolant and oil change... it works. I figured what do I have to lose, and it was worth it to me to just take the chance. I am glad it paid off, atleast for now. I took out the spark plugs and cleaned them up, when I reinstalled them, the car started right up (it hasnt done that in a while) and no smoke... None. Drove the car about 40 miles yesterday, no coolant missing, no smoke... Here's to driving it just a little bit more

 

It isn't going to last for too long I hate to say. I used that stuff for a couple of months until I could start my rebuild. I had a perfectly running motor, but, I also had 3 cracks in the front iron.

160k mile stock motor with all the glorious asbestos gaskets, but the ******* plastic radiator tank just had to explode and overheat my engine.

 

yeah, I am aware that it is temporary, as it is a bandaid on a laceration, however I am going to enjoy her while she is still around

Who knows, maybe it will last long enough that I can afford a rebuild in the future.

 

No need for a champagne test if he says it explodes like a geyser lol. Bad coolant seals is the verdict just by the symptoms given. It's hard to start and smokes because the combustion chambers are filled with coolant.