We finally did it! We brought home the Sapphire Blue 1993 NX2K!

I was able to drive it home. Taking precautions to not overheat the car, I topped off the coolant (which took about a gallon...so it must have been pretty much empty) and put in a new battery.

I did the a/c fuse trick from se-r.net and left the hood popped, but still latched to get more air under the hood. My girlfriend followed closely behind in my SE-R to keep nosey cops from seeing the lack of plates. We were able to drive the car 45 miles without overheating.

The car started on the 3rd attempt..not having been turned on since august. It idled very erratically, and there were intense vibrations in the car which I conclude to be bad motor mounts because of how badly the car shook at idle or under braking, but how smooth it was under accleration. The car would try to stall while braking with the clutch depressed.

It did not want to rev about 4500rpm, and it sure took its sweet time getting there. The car was very very sluggish, albeit smooth from 2k rpm to 4500.

When we finally got her home, i popped the hood and smoke was coming from (while standing in front of the car looking at it) the far left of the block. The smoke was white, and smelled slightly of burned oil. When I checked the dipstick, it indicated that it was far far above spec. The oil was also very watery.

The girl we bought it from (she wouldn't budge from $1000), said that a previous mechanic told her that the head gasket was blown. Does anybody know how to check this?

Tomorrow, I will pick up a timing light and compression tester. I will then temporarily (pending timing/compression results) install the plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and air filter from my SE-R to see if it helps the car at all.

If you have any tips, it would be much appreciated! I think the timing chain may have jumped a tooth, but I won't be sure until I get a chance to pull the cover off (that may be a while...)


EDIT: added some info about not overheating...

Hey buddy i hate to say it but if you got milky tan oil and its rising then while the coolant is going down then you either have a blown head gasket or a cracked block or head.

I wouldn't bother for now with the tune up stuff but definately do a compression check and a leakdown check on it. Pending how they turn out will make your decision. DET that sucker and have fun with it man.

Rick

Really sounds bad. The guy above is right rip that old motor out and toss in a det or vvl

I kinda figured the rising oil level was a bad sign :p I was just trying to raise some hope that the engine was temporarily salvagable!

Ah well :) I'll be doing a regular DE swap...no fancy DET or VE stuff because I don't know if I'm that capable yet! Besides, my girlfriend is gonna buy this car when we get it running.

I'm gonna go do a compression test on it today...thanks guys.

I was just out playing with it. I pulled the ECU codes...nothing. Code 55.

I started it up, in daylight finally...and when it starts up cold, there is a metallic "scrawk scrwak scrwak!" for about 2 minutes then it goes away. But, that definitely doesn't matter anymore.

I shut her down after about 3 minutes, and there was coolant steadily dripping from what looked like where the alternator is attached to the engine. Nothing coming from hoses to/from the alternator....so time to scrap this motor!

Congratulation bro :) Just dumped that engine already. Dont try to spend money on tune ups because from what i heard from you, your engine is nowhere to go than RIP hehe.. well good luck on your project.

Later