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This morning, the car started randomly idling rough when I was waiting at a light. The car was shaking pretty bad. Also, the car was overheating. Not much... Like 3 or 4 tick marks after 200 on the temp gauge. I opened up the hood and looked in the reservoir. The water was up to the full cold line. I decided to check in the radiator. I opened the cap with a rag on my hand. I heard the hiss so I assumed the pressure was gone and I lifted off the cap. *WHOOSH* I was covered completely in coolant from head to toe. So obviously there was coolant in the radiator and plenty of it. It took 1.5 liters of Ice Mountain to bring the level back up to the top. Driving the rest of the way to school she was running at 200* even. What's going on?!

Did it idle fine after your little incident? Maybe was air locked??

Idle went back to normal after.
She was running fine at 180* or so degrees for 45 minutes prior to when she started shaking.

Still running Dex FWIW.

On the way home, no more over heating... But still idling rough. Then she died on me and took about a minute of cranking to get started again. Also, there's this noise. Sorry, but this is the best my cell phone can manage.



Clackety clackety clack.

Perhaps UIM failure? If so... Good bye Penny.

Can't really tell from the video but maybe it's a bad waterpump?

You could always drain the oil and pull some plugs to be safe in case you do suspect a UIM failure. Hopefully it's not, but it's kinda hard to tell anything from the video. Is the slight intermittent screeching the sound that you're trying to show in the vid? If so it could be a bad water pump, but then again it could be a rod bearing squealing, it's too hard for me to tell from the vid.

I hope it's not anything serious! Best of luck to you!

Will and Ed both think it's the Crank Position sensor. I mean, we're not sure, but it sounds right. Tomorrow I will try everything I've researched and see what helps. I will also remake the video. The noise I'm trying to show starts at 9 seconds when I first bump the throttle a bit. It's hard to make out.

Also after going for another drive, the clacking noise seems to go away once the car is at operating temperature. I also heard what sounded like bubbling when I was pulling away from a stop sign.

Thanks for the help guys!

Crank sensor definitely sounds like it could be right, especially since you were having trouble starting it back up. I'd check the ICM too since you're having a rough idle. Hopefully the LIM gaskets are solid still.

Also, maybe you could try Bill's method of shooting some water on the crank sensor and pack the connector with dielectric grease to see if that helps before replacing the sensor? Just so if that's not the problem you aren't stuck pulling the balancer for nothing.

Ill be checking her out tomorrow am. We shall see whats up. Hard to say without seeing it. Knowing Penny tho it could be anything.

Edit: We just did LIM gaskets a few months ago.

Verdict: MAF and or ICM/Coils.

Status: Fixed. One yard run later and some time.

Well. I don't really know what to say. As Will mentioned, we replaced the ICM, all the coils, the MAF sensor, the spark plugs, and scanned it. The O2 sensor is all over the place no matter where the throttle is at. That's what we thought was the problem. However upon further driving and inspection. She ate all her coolant in the reservoir. The exhaust tips look like this:

There is a whitish powdery substance all around the tip with a river of black powder coming out the middle..
There is a very slight amount of milkshake under the oil cap. The car will go from idling like *shoot* to driving like a champ every 30 seconds. It will also cut out at random and be nigh on impossible to start. I don't know what to do. If my parents find out, they will make me get rid of it, and will not agree for me to get a replacement car for some odd reason. The only thing we solved today was solved her lifter tick, which sounded like gun shots. Oil change. And done. It's odd because there was NO milkshake or anything in the old oil. And now, after putting 10 miles on it since the change, there is a slight amount of milkshake present.

This is about how much milkshake I'm seeing. It's only on the cap. None that I can see when I look into the valve cover, or onto the dipstick.

I discussed this with Carl, but I suspect a warped UIM. Last week she was leaking externally, and he had to tighten the UIM bolts to stop it from leaking, I'm thinking in between the time it leaked and when he tightened it the UIM warped a little and is now leaking internally, but his cooling system is 90-95% water at this point, and it seems to just be burning off, not joining the oil in a sludgy milkshake party.

New UIM/gasket will go on Saturday if all goes right.

Penny is

No! :(

Alright so here is the deal. The L36 has seized. She is done. I have been given two options. Either trade the old girl, or motor swap. That is really all there is left to do here. I have to go with that which is less expensive. I don't see myself getting anything that can be called a car for what Penny is worth as she sits. ($500?) The maximum budget I wanna cap for this motor swap is about a grand. I don't care what goes in here, L36, L26, L67. Of course I would prefer boost, but if I can't it's whatever. The car needs to be car. It's so hard to find motors around the Chicagoland area. Any help in that respect would be appreciated as well. I'd also be interested in making this into a full blown meet, if people want to. Will has agreed to help and has room at his place for a couple of people, and so do I. Any help is appreciated though, whether that help is in person, or through the phone guiding us through the swap.

Thanks everyone.

You know I'll be there, I'll do anything I can for ya bro.

I have the motor hoist, and any and all tools necessary, and a vehicle to transport them available to me. We *could* in theory rent a tow dolly and use my rents' Expedophile to bring it to my place if need be, otherwise my tools are portable. We'll have her back in no time. I'll look around for motors to the best of my ability, I have some connections I can try to see about as well. I'll keep ya posted on that.

Any help with this is appreciated also.

I can try and offer some assistance as well. We have A LOT of Series 2 powered cars at my local pic-a-part. Most of the cars either had a bad transmission or subframe mounts rotted out. Engines are around $250 here.

What type of mileage are you looking for 60,000? Under 100,000?

Under 100,000 would be the most preferred. But if it's been cared for, I think I can swing up a bit more.