WTF Is Wrong With My Car?

[stonea]

Okay so I'm not all that experience with cars. I've no stranger to fixing things, but I'm new to diagnosing problems, especially engine related ones, so please bear with me. I was trying to fix my charging issue and all of a sudden my car developed a rough idle, also sometimes it would "choke" at 4,000 RPMs when I was on it. I decided to park it and try to figure it out, and I noticed a sweet smell coming from the exhaust I talked to my dad on the phone and he said it was probably running rich. He told me to replace the AFM and ICV to see if that did anything. I replaced the AFM with another one and that fixed the rough idle, but not the rich smell. I also switched out the ICV and that didn't do anything. I even replaced the ECU and that did nothing either. I'm going to go ahead and replace the O2 sensor, distributor cap and rotor, the plugs, the coil, and the plug wires (Since I have those lying around). Anything else I should look into? Its becoming a huge pain in the ass. Its been at least 1 month since my car has been on the road and I miss it. Thanks in advance!

[noid]

Cutting out at higher revs would make me think fuel pump.

No need to replace O2 sensor as you can just unplug it, which will make the ECU run off a default map.

Also check TPS.

[LJ851]

The only thing that smells sweet in the exhaust is burning coolant.


Cutting out a 4k is a typical symptom of a bad CPS.

[dnguyen1963]

Sweet smell from your exhaust = bad thing. Check your HG and head.

[stonea]

Well unfortunately it looks like you guys were right. Checked my oil and theres milky strands in it. I'm thinking about trying this product called blue devil. Apparently it stops head gasket leaks and since I'm not really looking for a permanent fix it won't hurt to try. I'm just looking for something that can get me through until November when I go back home. I was going to park the car for the winter and dive into the engine anyways.

[rcsoundn1]

I get your POV there, but it will likely depend on how bad the leak is. I used a similar product once for a leaky WP gasket. It was a minor leak. It is still working to this day and that was 3 or more years ago.