legacycentral bbs

My 1998 LGT Turbo is having a few problems.

The first may appear initially to be a bad head gasket. The PCV breather (filterless) simply breathes into the engine bay. When it gets higher in RPM, a whipped up oil substance starts building on the end of the hose and coating my FPR. It smells somewhat like fuel, but it's definitely oil and something else being whipped up on it's way out the crankcase.

Second, the car has been running about 10/1 AF at all RPM's for a few months, most likely due to boost leaks, likely washing out a cylinder wall (#2 or 4) resulting in a piston slap. I'd like to fix these boost leaks and call it a day, but then I still have the first problem. Could the 2 be related? And if so does what do you recommend? Options are looking like...

- Scrap this motor, part most it out and swap in a stock turbo motor.
- Sell the car as-is.
- rebuild this motor (someone else would do it)

The car runs fine, I just get worried about my milkshake (no Kelis please). The boost leaks I can fix I'm just getting really discouraged. I'm broke for projects right now, so help me think cheap.

Is it using any coolant? Have you checked the oil pan for water?

It makes perfect sense that your oil smells like gas, seeing as you've been running rich. That's to be expected...

The "milkshake" sounds bad though. I would drain that oil right away and see what comes out, because that sure sounds like a bad head gasket. Also, is there oil in your coolant?

I'll start tearing shit apart but it won't be 'til Monday.

If anyone has any other thoughts or input for me to think about before then please, feel free to toss me your ideas.

I did drain the radiator about 6 months/3000 miles ago and it looked ok, but I wasn't looking for anything odd at that point.

I had the same symptoms on my car. I would do a compression test on all 4 cylinders to determine the problem. If your car was like mine, then cylinder #4 is going to be like 25-50 PSI lower than the other cylinders. When I took the block apart and I had the cylinders measured with a micrometer the #4 was slightly football shaped and the cylinder was just worn. It had 160,000 miles so this is not unusual but the PO didn't change the oil like they should've and this caused a lot of premature wear. The main bearings were also worn, everything was worn out of spec basically. It was time for a new engine. I actually rebuilt it, but I think I did a rush job.

If I were you I'd decide what you want to do now. You already know the engine is going out. Do you want a new one, rebuild the one you have, or just scrap the car? That's something you have to ask yourself really.

the milkshake could be normal condensation from not running the car long enough to heat the oil up and burn it off.

Sick family, I think Ill be able to check the compression Saturday.

Fuel washdown may have taken out the rings on one or more cylinders, allowing fuel and air blowby which is overrunning the PVC system. the milkshake could be condensation, but a quick check of the dipstick would tell you if the oil is milkshaked...

1. oil change
2. FIX the rich issue before it does permanent damage (if not already)
3. check the PCV system, you shouldn't be getting blowby out the breather unless the ring seal is REALLY bad.

If you have capability to monitor AF ratio the 10:1 would be a fix it NOW signal....