hey fellas

woot finally back on af after a break away :iceslolan well ok i moved and was wonderign if by anychance anyone in the ohio area knows of a good place to find a new LLO ? mine has 344,XXX miles on it and runs almost decent ...
but gas millage is wearing a bit and some of my budies in my shop class (yes im 17 and go to a vocational school for auto service tech) have mentioned to me that when on start up appears to blow a bit of black smoke :uhoh: and soem suggestions from people have said it coudl be seals going bad . this car has never had its head off so i expect good amount of carbon build up and wear and tear on the valvetrain.
i will rebuild this engine over summer if all goes well . but i will need a new llo to use while this one is out of comision . no rush on you guys i need to save soem funds for the new engine.
i suppose im in north eastern ohio area (geography not my hot subject ) but would anyone know of a good place to look into gettign a new engine from ?

Wording may be bad and seems to overlap sorry for the rant but looking for help

All help apreciated

just a quick thought, black smoke at startup and poor MPG sound more like a leaking injectior to me, or maybe a bad ECT. i have known other LLO to have over 400,000 miles, so yours may not be done yet, for fun have the school do a compression and leakdown test. and if you are worried about carbon, try a top end cleaning/steam cleaning(the process has a few names, if you don't know what i'm talking about, i'll post a few links)

ditto: black smoke on start up is due to an overich condition. Blue smoke on start up is valve seals. As sierrap615 said, check the ect (coolant temp sensor) and the wiring connector for it. Do the cooling fans come on at all? As for carbon build up, try some of the GM top engine cleaner, just follow the directions properly