possibly a head gasket?

[ckiesman]

so, heres the story. after realizing my red 93 was a lost cause due to rust, i snagged an almost rust free 92 with 203,000 miles.

it was running alright, but not the way my red one did. In order to keep it from dying out, i had to have all electrical accessories on.

I went to start it this morning, and it didnt seem to want to start unless i had my foot on the gas. Well, when i finally got it to run, it make a popping sound, and smoke was coming out the tail pipe pretty angrly. Now it sounds like it might be running on 2 cylinders, but no abnormal noises.

I figured i'd ask to see if anyone had any ideas, just to possibly save me some time in fixing it

[blkfordsedan]

Sounds like it's loading up with fuel to me. Is the smoke black and does it smell like fuel?

[Pu241]

I don't think it would be a head gasket.
Have you over heated it?

Quick check for Head gasket failure is coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant.

But typically you'd get white smoke out the tail pipe if you were pulling water into the cylinder.

Anyway, give the above a check, but I think your issue is else where.
Checkout your plugs, plug wires, cap and rotor to see they car clean and don't have any corrosion or cracks/breaks.
This is free to cheap just to make sure nothing obvious is wrong.

[ckiesman]

problem solved, lol.

apparently there are coolants lines running to the throttle body. The gasket there let go, causing coolant to get in there and into the intake. I realized this of course after i pulled the head off. The car has 203,000 miles on it, should i do the water pump while i'm right here

[GenevaDirt]

problem solved, lol.

apparently there are coolants lines running to the throttle body. The gasket there let go, causing coolant to get in there and into the intake. I realized this of course after i pulled the head off. The car has 203,000 miles on it, should i do the water pump while i'm right here

well at least you found the problem.
Yes....water pump...timing belt....seals. Inexpensive and easy enough to do since you are at the point you are.

[ckiesman]

yea. i was surprised at the conditing of the timing belt, it looks brand new.

oh, and on the bottom of the radiator, near the drain plug, whats that sending unit type thing. It has 2 plugs on it, and neither of them were hooked up on this one or my parts car. My new car seems to take forever (over an hour) to warm up, and the fan dosen't come on.