Hi sorry if this is in the wrong area but im new to this forum and this seemed like the place it should go. Ok my freind has a broken down buick across the street. Driving it home one day it started over heating, he pulled over and kept trying to crank it over. eventually he got it started moved it a couple more miles before it died again. finally got it towed home replaced the water pump and the thermostat, all vaccum lines. there is that little box that acts as a 2in1 splicer for the vaccum lines. that got broken when he did the vaccum lines so he expoyed and siliconed it back together i know he also siliconed the metal holding the thermostat in !! as i stood there in disbelief he tried starting the car, it starts and idles like crap. will rev up fine in neutral once in gear the extra load of the tranny it stalls out. tried spraying the vaccum lines with carb cleaner to see if they were leaking still and also changed all 6 plugs. i think the compression is gone in the engine. any ideas? im a jeep guy so these front wheel drive cars are too new to me.

 

Yes , I have an idea or two.
If the car is in decent shape you will need to remove the heads because you /he will find some burned valves. The best way to correct that is to replace the heads with rebuilt exchange heads. As long as he didn't add cold water to the engine when hot, chances are you will get away with changing the heads. Wish I could have suggested something less costly, but that's the price of ignoring the overheat condition.

 

Finally i pushed the car to my house so i could be closer to my rollaway of tools. we pulled the bottom radiator hose drained it out to find oil in it. not trans fluid. in my experience automatic transfluid tends to stay red when it is in radiator fluid while oil makes the rainbow floating colors. after finding he never burped the radiator after installing the water pump we burped it once the air was all out the over flow level continued to bubble like a coffee pot, i was taught this is the sign of a bad head/head gaskets. We got it back to his mothers house across the street. the next day he starts it and explains to me it was "running better" so he was going to replace the spark plug wires. to me hes just shooting in the dark. whats the point of replacing non burnt non broken wires on the car if the heads/head gaskets shot right? thanks for the advice though i think this cars gonna sit for a while the new plan seems to be find a cheap beater for this weekend nd fix the buick over winter. it be nice if we could get away with a cheap fix but as it was overheating he was pumping water in it straight from a outside garden hose. even thought the thermostat was shot.

 

I can understand trying everything you can think of to remedy a problem and not taking suggestions from the folks on the forum. It's good to question the suggestions, however , in this case I have seen this problem more than once and it is unfortunate that a lot of time and money will be not be exactly wasted , but could be used more effectively.
I agree with your conclusion that there is more wrong than plug wires. As the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".
It would be good if you kept us informed as to what really gets done with the car.
Thanks, hanky

 

well now im baffeled beyond belief. He touched nothing under the hood randomly started the car and it ran better. good enough to get it home which was about 30 miles. As of now he is gonna drive it till it "dies again" , i personally have no clue how its even running seeing he has 3 signs of a burnt head/ head gasket, #1 oil in coolant , #2 bubbling coolant in overflow, #3 coolant out exhaust. im out of guesses. to me those are 3 things saying its time to rebuild a engine to him its drive it till it blows up it runs "fine", can lead a horse to water cant make him drink type deal i guess. but thanks for your help hanky

 

Don't you just love the guts some people have ? Probably should suggest carrying the vehicle title with him since when it finally does quit , it will make a good boat anchor.

 

its so nice to visit here a nice thread. Am so impressed with your such a good hard work, its definitely a good and diferent idea for others, you guys are doing good work good luck, keep it up..

 

as everyone predicted, the car has died again. soon after getting it to his house it began sputtering and stalling out again. Smoke started comming out of the exhaust and it stalled out the second you touched the gas, struggled to idle. Lucky a local dealer had a push pull or tow 500 dollar trade in. towed it down traded it in and purchased a slightly over priced 07 hyndai sonata 87k on the clock, including what he owed on the buick it was around 13k i think. 2nd day with car the brake caliper fell off and outside of the wheel!!! gotta love careless dealers. luckly they fixed it next day free.

 

In some respects it's comical and in others it's not.
There is probably someone waiting around for a good deal on a 92 Buick , if not to restore then to purchase for spare parts. Get the name of the dealer !!
The sad part is the way the car was operated causes me to wonder if it is worth anything. The Sonata is a nice car, but if it is operated like the good ole Buick , well anyway we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the update.