jahblah

Long story short, i was stoplight racing this random guy with an altima for s**ts and giggles. he seemed cool. one of those guys with the rims and loud bass. sooooo...was at the stoplight in 1st, easing off the clutch while revving the engine. light turned green and we were OFF!!!!! i quickly pulled away ripping the road in 1st. threw it into 2nd. continued to rip the road BUT then all of a sudden...i dont know what but i had a MAJOR power loose and my exhaust got wayyy louder up front. i was thinking i maybe blew a gasket but it was like 11pm and too dark to tell. there was no bang or anything. just no kind of pressure or torque or anything. felt like i was driving a scooter. so i eased her home and parked her. any idea what this could be??? i feel horrible i hurt my bird.

88TransAmGuy

iTrader: (3)

The exhaust got louder up front? Like in the bay or around the passenger floor pan? If it was under the passenger floor pan,it couldve been that you did something to the flange and it came loose. Or if youre running headers or even manifolds,you couldve just made one side become loose. But yeah from the way you did it it couldve been that you blew something.

jahblah

yea, got headers. sounded more like from the bay. guess i gotta check the bolts tomorrow. that would cause the drop in pressure or torque as well?

chevysquid

iTrader: (7)

Did your clutch slip maybe

RBob

iTrader: (1)

The noise most likely set off the knock sensor, with the ECM responding by pulling a bunch of spark advance. The loss of power is the result.

RBob.

brdofpry85ta

iTrader: (1)

.....Hope your bird is ok....But did you at least beat the Altima.....

jahblah

idk...what would that be like? i learned how to drive a 5speed on my bird a couple months ago and i was not taught what clutch slipping is or does. how can it be fixed if it did slip?

SUPER POWER LOSS!!! my car was LIMPING!!! so does that reset itself or is there work to be done? im dressed and ready to go outside and check on my bird since its my day off. afraid of what ill find out but the truth can be hard sometimes. guess i better grab my wallet when i go lol

Oh yea, when my bird died out, i was still on the gas. i was far enough ahead where i could limp to the next light. the lights were about maybe 1/2 - 3/4 a mile apart. he pulled up to the stoplight and said "your good but i was coming up in the end". lol i was thinking to myself "i barely made it to the next light"

jahblah

well, did a brief check. there is freakin oil in random places. can you bust the valve cover gasket? oil all over my heads on both sides above the header holes and on my firewall and stuff. like its been blown by the wind everywhere. and the last hole on my pass. side header by the firewall has exhaust escaping at a breakneck pace. but would that lower the pressure like that? i put my hand up to my pipes and there was a small push from the exhaust pipes..not the normal blowing you feel that can blow your pants. and i have true duals (each header has a single pipe (no h, x, or y pipe)) so why would an exhaust leak on once side have low pressure in both??

jahblah

theNMBR27

Does it knock or make any other than normal sounds?

SKELITOR117

iTrader: (3)

wow thats crazy man.

Impaqt

iTrader: (1)

What does the oil in the crankcase look like?

It would take an awful lot of blow-by to "Blow out" a valve cover gasket.. But it could happen I suppose. They can develop leaks over time as well. your cooling fans can certainly blow oil all over the engine bay.

Sounds like the first thing you need to do is find the source of your oil leak.


How long has it been since you had the hood up and looked at the engine? is this a sudden occurance?

defaced

iTrader: (6)

Oil all over the place and lack of power sounds almost identical to a blown turbo, but I'm assuming you don't have one of those on your engine. =)

Good luck on figuring out what it is. I personally can't think of anything that it could be at the moment. Hope you find out soon!

TreeFiddy

Agreed - is this a well maintained motor?

Oil aside - pull plugs and do a compression check. Get a vacuum gauge onto the intake and watch what it does, along the lines of this:

http://www.earlycuda.org/tech/vacuum2.htm

Pull valve covers and see if anything broke.

SKELITOR117

iTrader: (3)

I dont mean to take attention away from the seriousness of the situation, oh wait yes I do. How old was that maxima! Haha. For your car to break half way through the race and still win that guy must have had NO power.

Back to topic. You said you lost power and heard the exhaust noise get louder up front. Did you hear any other concerning/abnormal noises?

jahblah

when i first got the car, it made a type of knock/click on the pass. side head but not any further knock than that

i have the hood up every chance i get. am in the process of an engine bay cleanup so whenever im off, thats where im at. but it got a tuneup about a month go. and ive been searching the source but its really throwin me off by it being on both sides of the motor and firewall. when i cranked it yesterday, a "hissting" noise was coming from the last hole on the pass side so probly its the header gasket.

nope, no turbo. and thanks, me too!!!

pretty well. i pulled valve covers before when i did the tuneup to make sure there wasnt any sludge but everything was fine. ill have to check again then. and do the compression test. the motor has roughly 235,xxx miles on it (previous owner must have traveled the freakin world!!!) ive only put about 2k on it total if that much.

had to be like a mid 90's maxima. he had the rims and bass and lights and stuff with a girl in his car and guess he thought he was "the man" at the time lol

theNMBR27

With that many miles I'm not surprised the motor popped. My guess is that the ring lands/ rings are damaged. Do a compression test and see what's what. The good news tho is you can upgrade if you have to replace the motor.

SKELITOR117

iTrader: (3)

Yup. Baybe next time you see that guy on the street you'll have something more than a 305 with 235k on the clock to kill him with, Haha.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like you lost a head gasket.

RBob.

jahblah

my dad said that my rings were gone a while back. its burns hella oil too. like a quart every 2-3wks. i have a 350 i bought a few months ago that i was building up. wanted to whip the 350 into shape before doing the swap but maybe i better go ahead and drop it in.

yea lol i would feel better if i killed my motor racing something that was awesome like another 3rd gen firebird or a camaro. a garsh darn maxima, ughh lmao

maybe..im not ruling anything out..i thought coolant leaks with a busted head gasket? what would bust a head gasket anyway?

RBob

iTrader: (1)

It won't always leak water. If it leaks compression into the lifter valley that ends up pressuring the crankcase. Which inevitably forces oil out of every seam of the engine.

Head gasket can go from running hard on a cold engine, detonation, weakening over time.

RBob.

gmstrong

Heat.

theNMBR27

If you're going throw in the 350 youvshould build it before because it's not worth the headache pulling it out again later.

jahblah

and bad rings would let compression leak, right? and with 235k on the engine, im sure weakness is a factor. i always let my car warm up at least 5-7mins before going anywhere. and idk anything about detonation..

yea, i was going to order my kit to do a 0.040 over next week for my birthday. and get some better heads, cam, and intake...oh poooh. guess ill get another el cheapo 350 and build up instead. wanted a vortec 357