Help Save Elmobile shes a SMOKER!!!

[elmobile]

HEY hey festy lovers!!! Im Bry and I am glad to join fordfestiva.com
OK so I got me one!! its a 93 gl Red with two tone Black its a little beat up with a small amount of rust and it needs an exhaust but it runs good and its cuter then hell. I bought it for 800 off a surferkid/pizza delivery kid ( he just got a really nice ranger) I was sceptical about it,its noisey and rattles...but Ill be slapping the dog and spittin in the fire if it aint dependable and fun to drive.Within the first month of buying it I had three different people stop me and tell me about how much they loved theirs and how itll last ya fereverrr if you take care of it.One day sittin in the Auto Zone here come this spiffy little silver fesy all shiney an tricked out just a pimpmofest!! Ha Ha and when I saw some younger black folk in it we sat there ferever just all exited about the cars we just got. Any Who I take elmo into the shop to get things tight like I would with any car I buy,ya know Oil change brakes checked a little exhaust work,got her some new tires (12s can be a bitch to find LOL) just to make her happy and let her know we dig her.Anywho,the car is drivin daily mostly freeway.She does fine shakes a little past 65,the windows need meesed with to get em to roll up and if the wheels in the wrong spot ya gotta mess with it to get the key to turn haha. But otherwise not too bad for 800 bucks she has 150k but still runs a bit like an angry riding mower .I knew the car was using oil when I got it,it was obvious that the valve cover gasket needed replaced.There oil all over the motor ( kid was just dumping oil in her when light appeared telling me when the light comes on she needs two quarts.Anywho after the oil change elmo was fine for six weeks then one morning clack clak clak putt putt POOF white smoke,front of motor,exhaust for like a minute an a half and then it was fine... hmnnnn????? So we change the valve cover gasket tighten the oil pan leak be GONE, but smoke like described and noise as specified but only after she sits for awhile then shes fine hmnnnnn its got me nervous..let me mention this when i first noticed the smoke the first time I added 1/2 quart of lucas oil treatment,she got me to work and back and actually ran a couple days real smooth until it did it again and I added the other half,this got me through till i could changed that valve cover gasket.Now she does it everytime I start her after shes sat an hour or so. But she runs fine.Let me say I really like this little fkker.. I mean its worth saving even if its a little pricey. Im thinking since I have two quarts of lucas in it now and two oil 5w30 that I might be getting some blowback causing the smoke,I know the engine needs cleaned of surferboys negligance theres alot of crud everywhere low and on the exhaust. I want and need to save this car..I live In dayton Ohio ( anyone close who KNOWS??)

[Roboskittle]

I am at a loss for words on this post. Good luck with it.

[Zanzer]

Gotta hate short term memory loss.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28762

Or you could just look like 3 topics away from this one

[jtugfestiva]

i had that problem with white smoke before if you car is an automatic it might be the vacuum modulator thats giving you problems. mines was smoking intermitently and had it diagnosed the first time at 75000 miles at the ford dealership they charged me 200 bucks which is rip off then the second time i had it done at an transmission shop for 50 bucks. pretty easy to do your self. Trust me i couldnt figure out the problem thinking it was spark plug or a blown head but it didnt happen all the time. The modulator last for about 100000 or even less. hope this is the problem of your car.

[fattie]

holy cow , my eyes ! they burn !

[JohnGunn]

First, welcome to the site. If you love Festivas and want to keep yours running for as long as possible, you've come to the right place.

I see this was your second post, so I'll take the liberty of commenting on the form of it before addressing your car problem.

When I first looked at your post, before I read the first word, I felt as if some teacher had just announced that I would have to read a long Henry James novel before next class. It looked as if it would require more work than I had expected when I signed up for the course. I wanted to head for the dean's office to get a drop slip.

Part of the reason for my reaction was the length of the post. But even more daunting was the fact that there was no white space to break up the oppressive weight of the task of reading it. Here is your message with and without white space.

Your post as submitted.

HEY hey festy lovers!!! Im Bry and I am glad to join fordfestiva.com
OK so I got me one!! its a 93 gl Red with two tone Black its a little beat up with a small amount of rust and it needs an exhaust but it runs good and its cuter then hell. I bought it for 800 off a surferkid/pizza delivery kid ( he just got a really nice ranger) I was sceptical about it,its noisey and rattles...but Ill be slapping the dog and spittin in the fire if it aint dependable and fun to drive.Within the first month of buying it I had three different people stop me and tell me about how much they loved theirs and how itll last ya fereverrr if you take care of it.One day sittin in the Auto Zone here come this spiffy little silver fesy all shiney an tricked out just a pimpmofest!! Ha Ha and when I saw some younger black folk in it we sat there ferever just all exited about the cars we just got. Any Who I take elmo into the shop to get things tight like I would with any car I buy,ya know Oil change brakes checked a little exhaust work,got her some new tires (12s can be a bitch to find LOL) just to make her happy and let her know we dig her.Anywho,the car is drivin daily mostly freeway.She does fine shakes a little past 65,the windows need meesed with to get em to roll up and if the wheels in the wrong spot ya gotta mess with it to get the key to turn haha. But otherwise not too bad for 800 bucks she has 150k but still runs a bit like an angry riding mower .I knew the car was using oil when I got it,it was obvious that the valve cover gasket needed replaced.There oil all over the motor ( kid was just dumping oil in her when light appeared telling me when the light comes on she needs two quarts.Anywho after the oil change elmo was fine for six weeks then one morning clack clak clak putt putt POOF white smoke,front of motor,exhaust for like a minute an a half and then it was fine... hmnnnn????? So we change the valve cover gasket tighten the oil pan leak be GONE, but smoke like described and noise as specified but only after she sits for awhile then shes fine hmnnnnn its got me nervous..let me mention this when i first noticed the smoke the first time I added 1/2 quart of lucas oil treatment,she got me to work and back and actually ran a couple days real smooth until it did it again and I added the other half,this got me through till i could changed that valve cover gasket.Now she does it everytime I start her after shes sat an hour or so. But she runs fine.Let me say I really like this little fkker.. I mean its worth saving even if its a little pricey. Im thinking since I have two quarts of lucas in it now and two oil 5w30 that I might be getting some blowback causing the smoke,I know the engine needs cleaned of surferboys negligance theres alot of crud everywhere low and on the exhaust. I want and need to save this car..I live In dayton Ohio ( anyone close who KNOWS??)

Your post with white space added to identify transitions from one thought to the next.

HEY hey festy lovers!!! Im Bry and I am glad to join fordfestiva.com

OK so I got me one!! its a 93 gl Red with two tone Black its a little beat up with a small amount of rust and it needs an exhaust but it runs good and its cuter then hell. I bought it for 800 off a surferkid/pizza delivery kid ( he just got a really nice ranger) I was sceptical about it,its noisey and rattles...but Ill be slapping the dog and spittin in the fire if it aint dependable and fun to drive.Within the first month of buying it I had three different people stop me and tell me about how much they loved theirs and how itll last ya fereverrr if you take care of it.

One day sittin in the Auto Zone here come this spiffy little silver fesy all shiney an tricked out just a pimpmofest!! Ha Ha and when I saw some younger black folk in it we sat there ferever just all exited about the cars we just got.

Any Who I take elmo into the shop to get things tight like I would with any car I buy,ya know Oil change brakes checked a little exhaust work,got her some new tires (12s can be a bitch to find LOL) just to make her happy and let her know we dig her.Anywho,the car is drivin daily mostly freeway.She does fine shakes a little past 65,the windows need meesed with to get em to roll up and if the wheels in the wrong spot ya gotta mess with it to get the key to turn haha. But otherwise not too bad for 800 bucks she has 150k but still runs a bit like an angry riding mower .

I knew the car was using oil when I got it,it was obvious that the valve cover gasket needed replaced.There oil all over the motor ( kid was just dumping oil in her when light appeared telling me when the light comes on she needs two quarts.Anywho after the oil change elmo was fine for six weeks then one morning clack clak clak putt putt POOF white smoke,front of motor,exhaust for like a minute an a half and then it was fine... hmnnnn????? So we change the valve cover gasket tighten the oil pan leak be GONE, but smoke like described and noise as specified but only after she sits for awhile then shes fine hmnnnnn its got me nervous..

let me mention this when i first noticed the smoke the first time I added 1/2 quart of lucas oil treatment,she got me to work and back and actually ran a couple days real smooth until it did it again and I added the other half,this got me through till i could changed that valve cover gasket.Now she does it everytime I start her after shes sat an hour or so.

But she runs fine.Let me say I really like this little fkker.. I mean its worth saving even if its a little pricey. Im thinking since I have two quarts of lucas in it now and two oil 5w30 that I might be getting some blowback causing the smoke,I know the engine needs cleaned of surferboys negligance theres alot of crud everywhere low and on the exhaust.

I want and need to save this car..I live In dayton Ohio ( anyone close who KNOWS??)

Which do you think is more likely to be read and acted on?

If you chose the second one with lots of white space you're a winner.

My next observation is that you should try and limit yourself to one subject when starting a new thread. First, you wanted to introduce yourself, and, second, you wanted help with a problem. Those should have been in two different threads. The one where you introduce yourself and tell about your Festiva and how you found it, how much it cost, etc., can be a long as you think it needs to be, (not forgetting to use lots of white space), but the one where you are asking for diagnostic help should be much shorter.

The shorter it is; the more people will take the time to read it. And the more people who take the time to read it; the more people will take the time to respond.

On the other hand, you want to give enough information to define the problem so that people will be able to understand it.

The best way to start is by telling how the problem first presented itself. That's the part where you describe the first time you saw the white smoke last for over a minute. You didn't get to that until the middle of your long message. You should lead with this information.

All of the above is offered in the hope that it will help you get all the advice you need to keep you Festiva going.

When I read about white smoke coming from a car after it sits for a while, it makes me think that the valve stem guides are worn and that oil is leaking through them into the combustion chamber after you turn off your engine. The longer it sits the more oil leaks and the more it smokes up to a certain point.

The good news about having this as the source of your smoke is that it is not likely to destroy your engine. You should think about having it fixed, but since your engine has gone through a lot of abuse, it might be better if you just made sure that it never runs low on oil again, while you continue watching how it preforms, before deciding what should be done first.

The noise you describe I don't know about. You should try and identify exactly where it is coming from and where the smoke from the engine is coming from.

What you tell about the treatment you Festiva got from its former owner is a horror story to anyone who loves this car as much as we do.

One thing I would want to know is how much damage the engine has suffered from this mistreatment. That would mean getting a compression gauge and measuring the compression of each cylinder. Do that and report back the results and hear what the experts here have to say about them. Rather than telling you how to do this I'll suggest you invest in a Haynes manual.

If you don't have a Haynes Festiva/Aspire Manual, get one. Look at amazon.com and eBay to find a used one in good condition, or buy a new one for around $25 if you have the money.

If the response you get from this thread is disappointing, it may be worth starting a new one following the suggestions I gave you as to format and length.

Hope this has helped.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA