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[fattie]

well i thought the fuel pump was dead on the 91 i just bought , but i put my festiva battery in it and it fired right up , only one problem , i let it idle for maybe 5 minutes and the temp gauge went threw the roof , and it was blowing white smoke. im not sure if this is because its been sitting for a very long time or i have a blown HG , i checked the oil and its golden , just like it should for only having 59k. so any ideas to as what couldve caused this ? i did plan on having the whole engine resealed.

[Rocketman]

Is the belt for the water pump intact? Is there coolant in the engine? Fan on the radiator working?

[Gus Kelley]

Hey Fattie!  While the engine is still in the car, do a compression test. If you don't have a gauge then pull the spark plugs and look at the tips. The one that is clean while the others are dirty is the bad cylinder. If the plugs are new then pull them and crank the motor and sniff each plug hole, the ones that smell of coolant tells you where to look for problems after pulling the head.  Be sure to check for warppage if no cracks are found. Of the four that I've done the head gasket on, only one had coolant issues and none of them had cracked heads. One I did replace the head because the warppage was excessive. I doubt you'll have much of a problem because it seems that these engines are strong. I believe because this car sat so long out of operation that the head gasket got weak.  Good Luck! Gus

[fattie]

thanks for the help. a little more info. i let the engine cool down and checked the fluid in the rad , it was very low. so i filled it with water while the car was running and all it did was burp , it would suck the water in and spit it back out , it did stop smoking though and i checked the oil again and still like new. so i figured there is a blockage in there somewhere.

the temp gauge shot right up in less than 5 minutes of idling , btw it idled at 2k. there was no heat so i know the tstat wasnt stuck and it didnt seem to be sucking water threw the top rad hose. so i drained the rad and it was full of rusty looking coolant , so i flushed out just the rad a little bit but couldnt get the drain plug back in , the sway bar is in the way so tommorro ill be taking that off to do a complete flush of the motor. even if the HG is gone thats alright cuz i wanna reseal the whole motor. i hope the head isnt warped cuz the motor only has 59k miles on it , and that would suck.

[fattie]

oh yea , i was gunna rent a compression tester from autozone , how exactly do i do it and what should the comp in each cylinder be ? thank you

[Gus Kelley]

Hey Fattie! Compression should be in the range of 140lbs to 155lbs. But the real concern is that the cylinders are consistent, with-in 15lbs of each other. The tester should come with instructions. If not then chime in.  Good Luck!  Gus

[fattie]

thank you

[fattie]

wow i feel like an idiot. i was messin around pullin the fenders off and stuff and noticed there was no belt on the water pump or alternator. i could of sworn there was one on there but i guess ive found my problem. lol

[CapriTypeR]

Yep, that'd do it!!  Don't sweat it - it won't be the first time your car will make you feel like an idiot!!  Trust me!!

--Russ

[fattie]

i feel pretty silly. i hope i didnt do any damage. although ive been running it for just a minute or two as-is , it already idles alot lower and runs smoother.

[CapriTypeR]

I ran mine for about 20 minutes with the belt missing before I noticed. No damage was done.  Of course, I run 100% Amsoil in my car - trannie fluid, oil and coolant. The car never overheated, ran poorly, or otherwise acted like the water pump belt was missing!

--R

[fattie]

thats  pretty good , what kind of amsoil do u use , i think this motor is gunna make my festiva really fun to drive. im glad i didnt blow it up.