What to do?

[KongGMC]

I've been enjoying my little MKIII over the past several weeks and just excepting the many problems as a fact of life. It's still been missfiring at idle as well as when your getting on it real hard. Over the past several days though I've been noticing when I start it up it kicks out a lot of white smoke. At first I thought it was just just steam or whatever your car kicks out when it's warmed up and it's really cold outside, but the other day I started it up and the car was definately cold and it kicked out a huge cloud of white smoke and kept doing it as I was driving atleast for a couple blocks, then it stopped. It's only done it real bad once and I had ruled out a BHG until the other day when I popped the oil cap and noticed the tiniest bit of white foam on the bottom side of the oil cap. I pulled the dip stick and it's not foamy and I checked the coolant and it seems clean(atleast not contaminated with oil) although today when I checked it the radiator was low. I also happened to pull the timing cover off today and check the position of the cams. They seem to be timed perfectly although the belt has a bit of slack in it and seems to be the original belt. Don't understand why it's missfiring the way it is. I had corrected the timing a while back to 10* before TDC and it ran really smooth like that but it acted like there was NO power after about 2,500rpm and wouldn't even excellerate past 3,000. So it's at about 20* before TDC right now.

I called a machine shop here locally and they basically told me if the head needed to be completely redone(which I'm sure at 150,000 miles it does) it was gonna run me in the neighborhood $250-$400 plus parts. That pretty much includes everything except any parts.

So I'm wondering what you'd do at this point. You recommend pulling the head and getting that done or you think it would be better just to go another route? I really can't afford to go turbo right now so I'm thinking either rebuild the head/replace any worn parts like the distributor, tps, knock sensor(plus wiring), water pump, timing belt, and most of the hoses. Or try to find a good used motor that runs good for real cheap that I can just bolt in. What say ye in the matter?



Thanks,

Josh

 

[ill Z]

I kinda went that route and slowly wish I had just gotton a 1JZ instead.

I had BHG and needed a tune up, along with some maintanance. I ran the cost of rebuilding/milling my original head and it outweighed the cost of ordering a remanufacturered head. I paid $475(includes tax n shipping). Everything was assembled and the cams were already lined up perfectly. Has one year warranty and looked really good when I inspected it. So far I haven't driven my car much(due to lack of body work on my end). I spent quiet a bit on misc parts, new gaskets, hoses, etc. You should easily estimate a $1000 budget, have buffer for more, because you never know what you may run into. I spent a bit over that, then again I went with a graphite HG, ARP Head bolts, new water pump, silicone hoses, etc. The list goes on.....If your not going to do anything to the bottom end at least get some scotch brite pads and clean the top of your pistons. make sure you clean the hell out of everything, I couldn't believe how much every thread emphasized on the cleaning process. there are a lot of write ups here, some good and some just plain fantastic. I read through a lot of them before I began my work and I have to say, if it weren't for this great community I would surely have messed something up.

 

[AJ'S 88NA]

You will be better off IMO to rebuild what you have, at least you know what you'll have instead of not knowing what you are going to get.

 

[KongGMC]

Well like I said, I called a local machine shop and he basically gave me an estimate of $250-$360 plus any parts I need. I work for O'reilly's so although I don't get stuff free, I can get them a lot cheaper than usual.

I didn't get the price on a remanufactured head. Honestly I didn't think about that but I'll definately find out tomorrow at work. I did calculate up all or atleast most of the major parts I need including a Head Set which includes all the major gaskets for doing the head job. It's basically looking like $450 in parts all together... give or take a few. I included a TPS, and knock sensor in that estimate as well cause I believe both of mine are shot due to some check engine lights I've got on all the time. I also plan to do the knock sensor wire replacement when I do this. Looks like all in all with the extra stuff I threw in there I'm looking at about $800.

I wasn't planning on doing anything fancy with it. I don't make enough money to pretty it up or make it fast. I'm pretty much just wanting to do only the essential stuff I need to do to make this car reliable. Thus a 1JZ swap or even fancy high performance N/A stuff are all pretty much out the window.

 

[cuel]

Sounds like you already made up your mind...

It's not very difficult to do. Good luck.

 

[KongGMC]

Yeah pretty much. I just wanted some more opinions thrown at me for kicks and grins.

The idea about getting a reman'd head didn't occur to me though it should have. That's the kind of ideas I was looking for.

 

[KongGMC]

Do the headbolts have to be replaced when you remove the head? What brands do ya'll recommend since I can't seem to get them at work.

 

[CyFi6]

everyone here basically converts to the arp head studs