crashed my festiva

[fudge]

I got my car starting it was corrosion causing the issue.

Finally flushed my coolant and accidentally broke the gasket around the thermostat. Do they sell these at advanced auto or auto zone? I am going to check later but I was just wondering if I should go ahead and order it now.

[walth]

awesome. good job.

yeah they sell them. should only be 2-4 bucks iirc. is the BP as tempermental with getting the T-stat in place and not falling down and cracking the housing when tightening?

[fudge]

Awesome thanks. Yeah the thermostat is not in my favorite place, I havent actually put the thermostat back in yet because without the gasket water leaks everywhere. So I cant tell you first hand but I can imagine the thermostat and housing being tricky to put back in.

[walth]

Cool. Maybe someone else can chime in on that issue compared to b3/b6. Idk which T-stat housing is used for the BP. Just don't want to see it break and you have another delay.

[william]

Put a dab of super glue on the tstat to hold it in place so you don't break the housing. Also make sure you scrap all the gasket off of both surfaceses I failed to scrape the head in a hurry one time and broke the housing because a chunk of gasket was still left.

[fudge]

I got it all done and now my coolant is pretty darn clean! Hardest part for me was scraping off the old gasket and lining it all up right when I was reinstalling the thermostat and new housing. All in all it was not too hard and well worth it!

[ryanprins13]

Good to hear! My housing and block are pretty messy from many seal replacements and different glues. Felpro thermostat gaskets seal quite nicely with no sealant! I like them the best.

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[fudge]

Today it was raining pretty heavily. I set out to drive to my gfs house before work. It's a pretty far drive, like 30 mins/30 miles. I was on the highway for about 20 miles and the rain was pouring down super hard most of the way. I was going a little slower than normal 60s most of the way I think. At my exit there is a light I wait at to go left. When I was idling there I noticed my engine was idling rough going up and down rpms a bit and shaking a lot more than normal. When the light turned green and I was about to go I realized my engine bay was smoking a lot so I just pulled off and killed the engine. Before I cut it off my thermostat was at the normal level of like a third of the way up. I got my gfs dad to tow my car into the walmart parking lot right near there and had to leave my car because I didn't want to start it again.

Just yesterday I topped off my coolant, oil and brake fluid.

Any idea why this could happen? I did drive through a big puddle but it was right when I started and I didnt notice anything until the end. Should I wait til my car is all dry and then try to start it again?

[1990new]

From the evidence you present, the most logical cause would be that you got a lot of moisture into the distributor. First think I would do is remove the distributor cap and make sure it is dry in there.
Another reason could be that you were sucking a lot of moisture into the intake. If you got too much in before the engine was shut down your troubles could be much bigger.

[fudge]

Dang well I sure hope it's logical option A. Thanks for the info, it rained all day today so we are gonna go check it out tomorrow. I'm still nervous about firing her up again.

[firebush357]

My guess would be the distributor getting wet causing misfires. As for the smoke I don't know lol

[ryanprins13]

As for the smoke I don't know lol

When you spray hot exhaust or the engine with water it steams quite a bit. You just dont notice it until you stop.

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[fudge]

So my car has been sitting since Saturday night and I'm headed to get it tomorrow. I'm going to take off the distributor cap and make it's dry.
Anything else I should do before starting it? For some reason I am nervous about starting it and driving it again.

Oh yeah and I'm hoping the 'smoke' was just a lot of steam from the rain.

[1990new]

You could remove all the plugs and turn the engine over with the coil wire off if you are worried that water got into the engine. If it turns over easily and you see no water coming out of the plug holes you can rule that out.

[fudge]

Okay I will do that. The spark plugs use a 13/16" socket? And what is the coil wire?