YOU HAVE A CRACKED HEAD. Yup. No doubt about it.

The exhaust smell at the radiator cap confirms it. Under intense pressure when the engine is firing the crack passes exhaust gas. The cylinder pressure testor doesn't reach the gas pressure and temp of an IC engine.

Pull the head and have it Non-Destructive Inpsected (NDI'd) at a machine shop.

-sorry to hear about it.-

if you need more exact details why i believe it is a cracked head - let me know! I have walked this road before.... sigh.

I'm with P-funk , pull the head. I've hed the exact same symptoms on a car and buddies old Toyota mini van does this. An engine will run with a cracked head or bad head gasket drawing water into the cylinder and the only sign being the system lossing coolant and then overheating. On an old accord I had the car started and ran on 3 cylinders for a couple of minutes then was fine....two days later your symptoms showed up.

Pull the head and you will find the source of your water loss. Oh and unless you are stranded miles from nowhere in a clunker car , never use stop leak it causes as many problems as it solves.

Tom

Thanks P-Funk, I would love to hear every detail you have to say... I've been stressing over this for a while now. It would be nice to know what you know about it. It would help a lot to have the same confidence you have in the problem cause, and I'm trying to learn as much about the car/problem as I possibly can.

If I do go ahead with what you are saying. Where can I get detailed information about how to pull the head properly? How much can I expect to have it tested. How is it repaired/replaced. Could you estimate the time and cost to get the job done?

With all the money and time spent to replace/repair the head..It would be cheaper to replace the whole engine...ZM-DE's can be had for like $300-$500

As long as everyone is confident that its a cracked head and that replacing the engine is the way to go... how/where do I go shopping. Spent a few minutes just now looking around and found horrible looking engines sitting in dirt and covered with rust selling for ~ $500... *shrug* :dunno:

That is sickening news though. The car really does runs great... while the coolant lasts that is. Bleh!

here is what to do: you can't keep driving it this way.Get a manual and take the head off. After inspection you will be able to determine your cost. For a shop to do this I would think it would be between $600-1200 depending on the severity of the damage.

The used engine thing is an exceptable alternative....I raced my Miata with a used engine , wasn't a problem and it was sitting in the dirt like the ones you saw.

You really can't make an informed decision until you know the extent of the damage. So get the cyclinder head off and then decide.

Tom

check car-part.com

I have the Haynes Manual... but its a joke. It tries to cover 10 years of models... the 323's and Proteges... its nothing looks really the same, or is too general.

Macdaddy... any of the 1999 1.6L AT engines listed there are good. Will 2000's work... which should I focus on?

im pretty sure the set-ups are basicly the same for 99's and 2000's

but it might be easier for a 99

99-01 1.6l

You're spending too much time thinking, writing and worrying. Just pull the freakin' head and fix it. It's probably just the stupid gasket. Make sure you get a diagram of the cross-tightening pattern to put it back together. It way simpler than you're imagining.

Okay- my sad story:

86 (R)ustang with 3.8l v6.
After a blast down the road the temp gauge would shoot up.
As i looked at the colant overflow bottle it was bubbling like mad.
I would vent the gas pressure and then let the coolant flow back into the radiator as it cooled. The radiaitor would be almost empty at this point - the exhaust gas would push it all out. Research and advice said 'bad head'.

It made more sense to replace the engine with a long block vs labor and parts for just the head (~$400 more for an engine vice the heads alone). The car had about 100K miles on it.

Car ran fine (at first) and then exact same symptoms soon reappeared! AARRGGHH! :red:
I had to take it back to the shop that supplied the engine three times. Each time he pressure tested the system 'ok'.

I then took it to another shop and they put the 'sniffer' at the radiator cap for exhaust gas.
Yup. Exahust gas present.
I took the results back to the engine shop and demanded he pull the heads.

After he pulled the heads - he bench checked 'em and found a hairline crack in one. He replaced the head (no charge) and i was HAPPY! Giddy, even. he made good and apologized.

(Then i sold the car to a friend and within 24 hours the transmission shelled! :doh:)

LOL P-Funk :(

I've spent the last couple days doing all sorts of tests...
I'm 99% positive that there is a crack above the exhaust valve... which is why the cylindar pressure tests passed (the valve is closed not letting pressure escape through the crack on the other side). Its also why there was no coolent found in the oil, or oil in the coolant. But a little bit of coolant was found in the exhaust... but much more exhaust found in the coolant... that is because there is far more pressure on the exhaust side of things, so it is mainly a one way flow through the crack.

Thanks for all the imput, it really helped me trace the problem down.

I guess I just need to figure out whether too replace the head or the entire engine.

I have a large socket set... thats about it as far as tools go.
I have no experience changine either.
Money is a factor too, for tools and parts.

But I would like to do it myself.

What do you think

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That's easy. Engine..Cost is cheaper, whole engine is also more available and the amount of work is almost the same.