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My car ('93 Aero) has started idling very rough and I am also at times hearing quite a bit of valve noise. The tach stays pretty solid at idle but if you go to the rear of the car it is obvious that the idle is not smooth. It almost sounds like a backfire but it happens evenly, like a put-put sound. The car runs fine while driving but power seems diminished and it is very reluctant to start in the morning. Today was about 30 degrees so it should have started easily (low compression?) There are no CEL. I pulled my plugs today to have a look and shining a flashlight into all cylinders showed that the 2nd piston head was covered in gunk and was reflective (wet) :( The others were not reflective (dry) and seemed pretty clean.
I had some valve noise this summer in NH but I added some oil stabilizer (lucasoil) and that basically eliminated all valve noise and the car ran like a dream over the last two oil changes, at idle and while driving. I had all brand new motor mounts installed before driving to CO and WOW, it was like a new car. Now I am at 8000 ft in Aspen and the car hates me :/ I had starting issues last winter in the mountains as well (some of you may recall) and never quite figured it out as the problems disappeared once back on the east coast!
I have a couple theory's. One, is that my map sensor is faulty once I get above a certain altitude and makes the mixture too rich. There is less air up here so that means less gas is needed (start up and idle)?? If it is not leaning out the mixture to compensate for the altitude it could cause hard starting (flooding) and it could also gunk up the valves and cause the valve noise? Doesn't really explain only the #2 cylinder being wet...
The other is that I have just had a sticky valve for a while and it finally got fully "stuck" and that is why the cylinder head is wet and the engine wants to flood in the morning...
Please, any thoughts are appreciated!
One thing to note is that I topped off with red coolant because that was all they had at the time while on the trip out. My car had green coolant in it. I only used enough to bring it from Min to Max... Hard to believe that would have any negative effects but other than that, I have made no changes. Oh, and I also run 93 octane all summer but they only have 91 here and I am on my second full tank of 91.
Help!
posted by 71.196.1...
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