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Hi guys. My 96 nissan 240sx just developed an engine problem and I was wondering if any of you know what could be wrong? (I got the KA24de). After driving the car home 2 days ago with no problems, it decided not to start up in the morning. Turns out it was a dead battery so we replaced it. Then I am driving, I stop at a light, and the whole car starts shaking and the Idle is way off. It sounds like it is misfiring really bad and is not running on all the cylinders. It also pours tons of white smoke from the exhaust. It was especially bad when accelarating and driving. Then we replace the plugs, plug wires, distriputer cap & rotor because last time my car ran bad was because the plugs and wires were bad. But it never ran this horribly before. Turns out that all the plugs were fried. But even with the new ones it didn't fix anything. You can also see a little white smoke coming out of somewhere from the back of the engine when you open the hood. Some people have told me that I could have blown a head gasket. What do you guys think? Do head gaskets jsut go like that even when the car is not being driven hard? Or can anything else be the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
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Head gaskets can "break" at any time, even if not being ran hard. Sounds to me like that is the problem. If it is than it isn't that expensive to replace. -
Ok, thanks for the reply. Would it be cheaper to buy a whole engine gasket set and replace all the others while its all apart?Originally posted by DRIFTER-MComment
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its not the head gasket, my car has the same problems, is there an after market exhaust on the car? also adding new plugs and cause the car to start running rich, which will cause misfire. If u have an after market exhaust, the amount of air the exhaust is letting out will cause the car to starting running rich along with new plugs.Comment
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since youre going to be taking lots of *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* apart its recommended that you replace water pump and check everything else on the motor while youre at it. get heads rebuilt and all that.
have fun
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Well, when I got the car I had some random shop make me 2.5 in cat back because my car didn't have a muffler and I needed to put one one, so I decided to just have an exhaust made. Then later my car ran real bad one day and it turns out my plugs and wires were bad. Then after putting in new ones, it still had a wierd problem where the plug wires would literaly push themselves out like an inch. Then we finally replaced everything again and it was fine. About a month and a half later my car developed a hesitation problem. It would hesitate before 2k and after that it would be fine. Now I have this problem. Could it really be the plug and wire combo?Originally posted by TeamFazzne
Since I need my car to run I couldn't wait to get good ngk's off ebay so I got the most expensive (only 2 bucks a piece NGK v-power's) ones from my local advanced auto parts and their wierd store brand wires which are crap. Could this really mess up the car this bad?Comment
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i've really never heard of plugs being that troublesome. You say it has white smoke coming off the back of the block? check to see if its coming in between the head and block, if that is the case id say it was a head gasket. A friend of mine had some similar problems on his integra, id check your valves and compression before you do anything major. That may help, or you can just skip to the fun stuff and drop the sr20 in there
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Yeah, I am still saying its the head gasket, also like gotnismo? said, if you wanted an sr20 or ca18 right now might be the right time to do it.Comment
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sounds like a dead injector dude......Comment
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white smoke = dead injector?
how the *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* did you get that? explain it to me please
and what does the smoke smell like? yes you do smell the damn smoke if yer car is broke, thats how you can tell whats burning to make the smoke.Comment
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sounds like the head gasket is blown. does it sound like a harley davidson at idle? i had that same problem with a 92 240 . the way i did it was by turning on the car ,letting it idle . then i pulled out each spark plug wire one by one. if the car doesnt idle rougher or sound different then that cylinder is gone. check your oil make sure theres no coolant in it. also u might want to have check the compression on the cylinders. good luck.Comment
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having a blown headgsket wouldnt make your car shake and idle really bad. just overheating, or maybe your head hasnt wapred yet.
yours is 96 so i think your still obd1. try and pull some codes and see what you come up with.
did you set your timing?
engine swap is not the answer to an engine problem always. i had blown 2 headgaskets in my sohc and im having lots of problems with my car now.Comment
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white smoke = coolant...check the bottom or you oil cap is there any milky looking fluid there? also you can check inside the cylinder where the spark plug seats look with a flashlight to see if theres coolant in there as well, also leaks around the head and block... also is your coolant going somewhere? check the level if you dont see a puddle where you park... youre headgasket is gone. as for the smoke in the engine bay... your sure its not steam? and not smoke? could be the coolant leaking from the head gasket onto your engine... anyway id bet headgasket. now since i helped you with your problem anyone wanna help me with mine see : sr20det help???Comment
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Thanks
Thanks for all your help guys. I didn't find any signs of mixing in my oil or coolant. The last thing I am going to try is putting on a set of NGK wires and plugs because it might just be a combination of different brands of plugs and wires considering my local advancedautoparts store gave me the wrong plugs, wires, etc one time and their stuff really sucks. But other than that a lot of the bolts that hold the injectors are extremely hard to get off and some are almost stripped so I haven't been able to check those yet. And as for the smoke, it is basically pure white and smells really really bad. And it only smokes really bad like that when you give it a little throttle.Comment
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A little improvement
Today I put in much better NGK plugs and some 9mm wires compared to my crappy 7mm ones. The number 2,3,4 plugs that were in there were burnt. So it seems that when you put in new plugs, the car burns them out. Now here is the thing. The car started up fine and for the first time since the problem it actually idled and reved without shacking and misfiring. But nevertheless it still pours out tons of white smoke. My question is this: If it is the head gasket, is it possible that the car will run fine for a little then the plugs will get messed up and burned and it will start to run really bad again? Any suggestions or ideas?
Thanks.Comment
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