Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Are these the death throes?

Hi, this might be fun... at least for you

What do you think, is the car dying or not? Symptom: Very rough idle, exhaust is "putt"ing, if I rev the engine it usually stalls when returning to idle, and there's that big plume of white smoke behind the car...

The good news... no apparent coolant in the oil, or vice versa.

Also, I noticed water literally spraying out of the muffler with each "putt" from a small hole on the engine side. I think the hole may be from the factory, but the water is not

Any ideas? Thanks!

I think there's often a bit water coming out of the tailpipe which is normal. Factories often have weep holes in mufflers to let water out to prevent rusting. But...white smoke I think can be caused by a coolant leak which might explain the extra water you describe. Perhaps a head gasket??

You might try talking to the car, explaining what the crusher is and how it works, and what might happen if it (the car) doesn't pull itself together!

ROTFLAO

I gave the care a thorough talking to before more checking this morning... but it didn't seem to help.

Antifreeze covering one of the plugs. Head gasket must be gone. Seems awfully strange for a Zetec w/ 62k miles on it and not pushed too hard...

Anyway, I think I might be able to fix it myself... I've replaced an intake manifold before, this is just basically the next step, right?

One thing I'm not sure of is how likely is it that the head is warped or cracked?

I'm talking out of my butt here I think but...... If I'm not mistaken you can buy a ztec motor @ a resonable price now. Might just be worth a new or rebuilt motor with some warranty rather than finding out the block is cracked or something. BTB I had my motor on my ztec go before. Cracked #2 cylindar. This was at 50000miles.

Thanks for the tip, mbb.

I'll look into it. I'm going on vacation tomorrow, but when I get back I'm going to start pulling things apart and see what I find.

Crossing fingers for no cracks, no warpage.

In any case, I should look into how much a new block costs, as you suggested.

A little known FACT, is that antifreeze must be changed or reconditioned every 2 years regardless of how it looks. It is because in time antifreeze turns acidic. I have an antifreeze tester (you get from the Snap-On guy) that checks for this. They are colored strips, and when you dip them into the antifreeze, they change color. You then compare the color to the graph on the bottle. Tests for freezing point and acidity. The acid test is just a simple pH test. It's because if antifreeze turns acidic, then GUESS WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL THE GASKETS CONNECTING TO THE COOLING SYSTEM??? Every two years. So if you own a '98, then you should have already done it 2 times now, REGARDLESS OF MILEAGE. Hope this helps

Well, it doesn't help per se, but it will in the future...

Thanks for the advice.

Whats a good reasonable price for a new motor? What kind of money are you talking about How much?

Terry had some didn't he? Maybe do a search as to what he'd charge.