Some of you may remember awhile back, I thought my opti was shot due to moisture getting inside it. I ended up picking up another opti with low miles on it and put it on. Everything was ok until last night...

Ended up taking the Camaro to work, it was raining all day and pretty heavy by the time I got off. This was pretty much the same as the time before when I thought the opti went. Get about halfway home (60 mile round trip btw) and the car acts like it was running on half cylinders. Mainly at stop lights and accelerating up to speed. Ended up getting home and parking it.

After work today, decided to investigate. Starting with the air filter, it was dry (thought maybe it got wet) Then I moved onto the throttle body, took it off to clean it up and noticed water and a creamy liquid was coming out of the tube that connects to a rubber hose that runs to the passenger side valve cover.

So thinking I blew a head gasket, I checked the dipstick and the coolant, oil and coolant looked clean and at normal levels, so I pulled the valve covers off, everything looked good. Decided to pull the intake and see if that would lead me to anything. As Im removing the intake bolts, I notice the two passenger side center intake bolts are completely loose and when I pulled the bolts out, the same creamy liquid was on the bolt threads as well. I noticed that there was a little standing water right there that always collects after it rains because of the cowl hood. Im thinking the water would leak into the intake manifold bolt hole. Im wondering if somehow this is all related to the creamy liquid from the throttle body?

Although not sure if this has anything to do with it or not, but I did take off the mufflers to run straight pipes a couple nights back and when I pulled the mufflers off, a large amount of water came out of the muffler, I know a little will develop from condinsation but this was alot, maybe half a gallon.

So anyways, Im hoping this was the issue all along and hope this solves the problem. I didnt see anything that was ignition related as the plugs, wires, and coil all have been replaced in the past 500 miles. Also going to change the oil afterwards incase there is any water mixed with the oil still.

Going to use this opportunity to paint the intake probably red or black and clean the engine bay up a little.

Does this all make sense or can someone offer any ideas that im missing?

 

Lol you have a leaking headgasket dude. Half gallon of water out the muffler... Lol damn. I wish my problems were always that apparent.


You can do a pressure test to verify. Is it getting rid of coolant?

 

you can block check the radiator to find a bad head gasket. Also did u find any coolant at all in the oil? Is there any oil in the radiator at all that you can see? Does it run fine now that it stopped raining? ANy ses light on?

 

Thats what I thought, but im not low on either oil or coolant and the oil looks good as does the coolant, Im just wondering if somehow the water that got into the engine from the intake was getting blown out the exhaust? Or it just ALOT of condinsation?

 

are you sure it was WATER and not coolant? the thing with the creamy liquid happens to me every time it gets cold for a couple days in a row. a little in the fresh air tube and none on the dipstick. was told it was normal. the only thing i see that would REALLY indicate a blow head gasket is the water in the muffler, but only if its coolant. iv seen cars with bad cats collect alot of water in the exhaust. u said you where running sraight pipe tho.does alot of white smoke/ steam come out of the exhaust when cold? check for signs of water on the plugs.

 

u should not have that much water pouring out of the exhuast!!!

 

well he didnt say it was just pouring out. he said it was just sitting in the muffler. has it overheated recently?

 

No, actually it wasnt pouring out, just when I pulled the muffler off, I help it upright in the air and each muffler probably had about a cup full from each. The car hasnt overheated, actually stays at 165 all day long, even in traffic. The exhaust doesnt smoke at all either so its not really showing any signs of a head gasket, although since I have the intake off and really not much work to pull the heads off, I may just throw some new head gaskets on anyways.

 

You need to check your o2s ,they make our 94s do crazy things,my car would act like it was running on 4 cyls,I unpluged the o2s ,it ran great.My car never set the ses light,try unplugging them ,bet it will fix it,and I replaced my o2s with standard ignition o2s ($50 for both),and they work great.(p.s as long as it was not coolant in the mufflers or white smoking,water in exhaust is normal,you probably dont have a drip hole to let the water out).

 

hmmm, i wonder, plus im not sure if they are working, i was making 02 extensions and may have mixed a wire, not sure, but i didnt notice any difference when i went from no O2s to O2 sensors.

as far as the exhaust, no i dont have a drip hole

 

did you try unplugging the O2's and seeing if it helped out ?

 

yeah, it sounds to me like the o2 thing is plausible. it wouldn't hurt to try...

 

i was ahving similar problems and i unplugged my o2's and my car started up fine and ran Great! it wasnt until i changed my o2's out with my older set and plugged them in and it ran like crap again. i think i have a short somewhere so now i have to hunt that down