Quote:
Originally Posted by Bitter
sounds like she has a two part problem going on. shes burning oil (probably stuck rings) which causes ALOT more carbon build up (and probably is what damaged the cat and O2 sensor). carbon build up will cause detonation. detonation WILL do some nasty damage to the engine if not taken care of. its literally like a bomb going off in the chamber as the piston is coming up and can not only erode away the piston but burn valves, crack pistons and heads, cause headgasket failure, or even burn a hole in the piston!
you need to do 2 things, adress the ping and adress the stuck rings.
1st run a compression test across all 4 cylinders and record the results.
for the rings try some 'snake oil'. get some seafoam and put 1/2 the bottle in the engine oil and idle it for 30 minutes then change the filter and oil.
run the compression test again and see if it improved any. if not then do the other half of the seafoam in the oil, let it idle for about 15 min, then drive it around gently, try to go up some inclines and load the engine without revving it hard. then change oil and filter, check compression. hopefully by this point it will have improved some.
now for the carbon....either you can get it out the easy way or you need to pull the head off and clean it manually. do the seafoam in the topend a couple times and see if it helps. if it doesnt you'll probably need to pull the head and clean the carbon out by hand. honestly, thats the best way to do it since you can inspect for damage.
then smack her around about not having her oil changed regularly, since thats what caused this whole mess to begin with!
|
Surprisingly, the oil is changed every 3K! But......... she bought the car with 50 K on it, history unknown. I suspect the previous owner/s didn't take care of it as they should have. Those seem like good suggestions and i will try them as soon as possible. Next week, we are taking the car to her cousin who has a shop. I will tell him to run compression tests, etc. As far as causing damage, I've heard that before which is why I want to address this because this car has to last her for a couple of more years.
Thanks for the help,
Mike
