To my 'Venger. Just finished paying it off this month first of all. Today I was driving it to a friend's house after work and noticed a slight knocking noise when I accelerated. By the time I pulled off to the side at a service station, the car was stalling with MAJOR troubles starting back up and smoking like crazy, and my temp guage was through the roof.

I opened the hood and smoke poured everywhere, I open the block where you put the oil in, and again; smoke everywhere. I went in and bought a thing of anti-freeze and waited for the car to cool off. I open the **** to pour in the water and it was bone dry, so I attempt to start the car. Now a horribly loud knocking noise was audible and the car was struggling to stay on, chugging up and down like it was starving for air or fuel. I started pouring the antifreeze in and the car stalled.. finished pouring the whole jug in and I could hear it flowing onto the concrete below.

So long story short, car was overheating, something's cracked.. it won't stay on, it'll start but it'll chug and then stall. Any ideas what happened? Blown freeze plug? Blown head gasket? Cracked block? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Well.. tore the car apart today after work to get a good look at it. Seems like the thermostat is shot, o-rings and gaskets need replaced. Cap and rotor are pretty bad also, figured I'd replace them while I got it apart. When I started the car this morning to get it on the slab, it sounded fine; good compression, no bad noises, started right up so I'm hoping that replacing the above parts is going to solve my problem.

If you can think of anything else that I could check while I got the car in pieces go ahead and shoot, any help is appreciated.

 

Goes without saying I think, but how about a timing belt?

 

you might want to check the oil pump cause i had the same problem with my 1999 avenger es coupe the whole oil and smoke but i suggest the oil pump

and do you still have your stock rims for your car cause i am looking for another set

 

you might want to check the oil pump

do you still have your stock rims cause i am looking for another set

 

Update.. first off got the car running 50X better than it was before. Ended up pulling off the whole right side of the motor to get to the thermostat housing and everything. Found one of my O-Rings were leaking so decided to replace a few of 'em.

First of replaced the O-Rings on the pipe that goes from the water pump to the thermostat housing. Replaced them on both sides. Then replaces the smaller O-Rings on the supply and return tubes going from the thermostat housing.. then finally replaced both gaskets.

While I had the car apart I decided to change the cap and the rotor button since I didn't do that last time I did a self tune up. Needless to say, I managed to fix the leak, and the car runs so much smoother thanks to the new cap and rotor.

Still thinking of taking the advice and changing the oil pump since it's probably the original from 98.

And no, I don't have the stock rims anymore, I scrapped them when I got the new ones.

*EDIT* Forgot to mention I replaced the thermostat itself and cleaned all the corrosion from the pipes. For somebody who know jack squat about cars, I'm pretty proud of myself