I just bought my girlfriend a car...1988 Chrysler LeBaron with the 4-cylinder turbo, and 120,000 miles on it.

It starts and runs fine, but blows thick white smoke everywhere. There is definitely a major exhaust leak at the backside of the engine (where the exhaust manifold is), because that's where half the smoke is coming from; the other half is at the tailpipe.

I'll have to get a mirror and have a look back there, to find out whether the head's cracked and the exhaust is leaking there, or if the exhaust manifold itself has a leak. I'll also do a compression test.

I know that with all the white steam, I have either a cracked head, or at the very least a blown gasket. Since I'm working so much these days, I'm going to let a mechanic I trust fix it. He says there's a good chance that the pistons will be melted, requiring an engine rebuild. I know the only way to find out for sure is to pull the head off, but is there some way I can get an idea about the pistons before I send the car to him?

 

You may be able to look for little "specks" on the spark plugs (on the white insulator) from piston degradation. I would pull the plugs and give them a look, let us know what you find. I guess if they're damaged bad enough, you could get different compression readings on the cylinder(s) in the vicinity of the water leak. That's about all I can think of without removing the head. Hope this helps, man.

 

Jethro, you're right, I'll bet if the pistons melted, they would leave some form of waste on the spark plugs. I won't be able to work on the car unti Tuesday, but I'll tell you guys what happens. Thanks a lot.

 

No problem at all, I just hope I was able to help you some and that you can get to the plugs pretty easy. I'd say if you don't see anything funny on the plugs then your pistons are OK, but I'm not positive about that. Good luck and let us know what you find come Tuesday!

 

Best place to start is with Russ K.'s site: http://members.nbci.com/minimopar/index.html

Generally the head gaskets are a problem and Russ has some tips in his site. Only problem is that there's lots of mechanics who try to do this on the cheap and try to slip'n'slide a new gasket under the head without properly cleaning the surfaces, etc. What does this mean to you? Well you paid full price for a real crappy job that will be back in the shop just after the guy's so called warranty expires.
General 2.2 knowledge is to go to the chrysler dealer and get a good mopar performance headgasket. There's 2 generally available for stock applications: a turbo 1 (early years/no intercooler/automatic) and a turbo 2 (87-90's with intercooler/manual). How to tell difference? T2 has small holes drilled at 45 degree angles between the cylinders in the head and blocks.

------------------
'89 Formula - Thunderchicken - 355 Vette L98/T-5/3.45 9-bolt/black/t-tops - the fun car!
'90 GTA - The GTA - 5.0 LB9/TH700/3.27 9-bolt/black/t-tops/tan leather - the cruiser.

 

The car's in the shop now...mechanic did a compression test and #1 cylinder is dead. He'll have the head off by noontime tomorrow and we'll know the extent of the damage then. I didn't know it before, but he says he used to be a Chrysler mechanic too.

Brian, I'm looking at that link you gave me right now, and it's great! www.allpar.com has some good info too. I wonder what times this car makes stock? The interior's nearly perfect, and the body has no dents or rust, just a few paint chips. Maybe I can start doing some performance stuff to it.

 

Chris: I'm supposing it's an automatic without an intercooler. High 15 to 16's. It's much like a Daytona but perhaps a bit heavier. There's lots you can do and not all of them require spending a lot of cash. My friend Arlie recently picked up a 1 of 4 'non existant' '90 Lebaron ragtop with a 5-speed and VNT turbo...It's a fun ride.
At the time when these were being built, they held their own against 305 f-bodies and Stang's... they have severe limitations because of the FWD but that doesn't mean you can't have fun... good work car because at least you can get decent MPG and pull out and pass if you need to. Lots of guys go fast with them, personally mine sucks but that's another story. Here's several links for sites.
Turbo Gearhead central. http://www.turbogearhead.com/index2.htm

This is Gus's page... He's a really great guy I had the pleasure to meet last year when he was at LVD running 12's in the Slugmobile. A true guru.e http://pages.cthome.net/gus/index.html

Here's Gary Donovan's pages - another guru that's got a K-car in the 10's.. I talked with him last year also... great guy, he was driving the 12 second daytona that day: http://idt.net/~gdonovan/index.html



------------------
'89 Formula - Thunderchicken - 355 Vette L98/T-5/3.45 9-bolt/black/t-tops - the fun car!
'90 GTA - The GTA - 5.0 LB9/TH700/3.27 9-bolt/black/t-tops/tan leather - the cruiser.

 

Yeah, I was at my girlfriend's house last night reading Russ K's site until she finally yelled at me to come to bed! The car's for her, and she drives on the highway a lot and could use some good fuel economy. (And she doesn't much enjoy parking my '87 Cadillac Brougham she's using right now.) But she would also like a good amount of passing power, so this sounds like the perfect car for her. I can't wait to hear back from the mechanic too.

 

Oh and yes, it is a three-speed automatic, and I'm almost positive it has no intercooler.