1994 MX3 v6

[ski]

Son just bought car ,exhaust was rusted off about half way back so spent the day at autowreckers and in garage installin exhaust now I see hes getting black smoke from exhaust when he revs it and a oil like fluid in tail pipe ,not thick like oil but black and thin,Previous owner told son when he bought car that it might need a head gasket but wasn't sure.Would this be the cause for the smoke and fluid? Also car doesn't idle very well I am what you would call a beginner backyard mech,can do somethings brakes stuts waterpumps ect If it is headgasket is their a online manual for this car.I checked the home page and it has 93's and 95's manuals but not 94

[Daveb]

It does sound like head gasket. First check your oil cap for grey/whitish foam or sludge (maybe inside valve cover too, check thruogh hole with light). If you have a lot of that, u best do head gasket or change engine, coolant leaking into oil (may show on dipstick as well). Driving like this will wreck your engine fast.

If your oil seems fine, check your antifreeze level, top up and use the car a bit. If your antifreeze goes down you have coolant leaking into combustion chambers. In this case I would almost suggest doing a rad flush &/or a a sealer to your prestone. These sealers claim they can fix minor head gasket leaks.

I ve always had good luck with bars leaks, i get from Canadian tire.

I m just giving suggestions, I could be wrong. The head Gasket job would probably be correct way but 1.8 s are reasonable & a 2.5 KLZE would raise the value of the car & give it some zip.Your call

good luck

[Daninski]

New plugs, check the wires, set the TPS, air filter clean? Oil change, fuel injector cleaner and hig test gas. Take the car on the hwy for a bit and see if it improves. After checking what daveb said.

[wytbishop]

The thin black material in the exhaust is water vapour mixing with the carbon soot in the muffler. That is a good indication that the engine is, or was running pretty rich. Could also mean that the car you took the exhaust parts off was running really rich and you got the byproduct of that when you installed it on your son's car.

I'd run it for a while and see if the black smoke abates. It's pretty rare for an engine to produce thick black smoke. That would indicate a significant amount of oil burning. If it continues, you'll notice the engine oil level going down almost daily. If that is the case, the engine is probably not salvageable.

My bet is that the exhaust you pulled was really carbonney and it's just burning off.

[Nd4SpdSe]

You'd get a sweet-smelling white smoke from the exhaust if it was head gasket.

If your burning oil, typically you'll get blue-ish smoke.

[ski]

Thanks for all the great advice ,black smoke seems to have fixed it self so I'm guessing Wytbishop was right ,as for head gasket theirs no water in oil that I can see have topped off rad fluid and told son to keep carefull watch on level if it goes down we will try Daveb's sealent fix to see if this will work as its the simpleset fix .
The only other problem is the car stalling when he comes to a stop it slowly idles down then dies,If temp gauge is at normal running temp car runs great doesn't stall