blown headgasket? hope not... 93' lude

[shynomi]

About 2 weeks ago a friend and i tuned up my prelude. (maybe for the first time) anyway it has 181k on it. We changed the spark plugs (onehad oil on it) the plug wires, distributor cap, pcv valve, valve cover gasket, fuel and air filter. When i start the car i'm getting white smoke for about 30 sec. to a minute and then it seems to go away. also when i start the car it idles kinda funny it varies from 1k rpm to 2k rpms and below 1 k sometimes. It even cuts off every once in a while. I thought it was bad gas or my fuel was having a hard time going through the lines becuase it sounds kinda putt putt sounding. It only idles weird for like 30 seconds then it seems fine. Today i was at the bank drive through and i heard this hissing sound kinda scratchy hiss it happened for like 2 seconds then like 5 minutes later it did it agian and i looked in my rearview i saw black smoke. What could that be? also My top radiator hose recently (a week ago) busted and antifreeze went all over my engine so i changed that and refilled my antifreeze. i noticed that my antifreeze in the radiator turns kinda cloudy with black . i guess i need to empty it and put fresh antifreeze in it it prolly needs to be cleaned. Can i clean it once it's empty. Sorry if i sound retarded i'm a newbie at cars. I'm learning tho. So what could it be.

[dbebesi]

yeah, usually a good indicator of a head gasket problem is oil in your antifreeze. that's the only way it would get in there. that or a cracked block or head. if you like your car, go get it checked out and fixed. my

[Phunyguy]

if yer head gasket is fried - shouldn't be a big deal - just put a new one in... if it's a cracked block - drop an H22 in there

[shynomi]

well i went and got a diagnostics check on my car and they told me that they didn't see anything wrong with the gaskets but told me there might be a small minute crack in the radiator and that is why my antifreeze seems to be getting lower (slowly) so i bought some Bars Leak radiator seal liquid and flushed my radiator and added fresh water and antifreeze and added the bars leak stuff and everything seems fine. My car doesn't idle weird at startup nor do i have any white smoke anymore. how could that stop the idling or the white smoke? doesn't make sense but it's fixed so i'm not complaining. Thanks for the input. \

nate

[sofast]

Bars leak is on of the worst things to do to your cooling system . Im glad your head gasket problem turned out to be a negative.

[lucentinjection]

also i found when you start your car and it revs up to 200-2200rpm and the cuts down to about 1000rpm...you may have air in your cooling system, which leads to a blown head gasket...and yeah that bars leak stuff just causes problems...but more power to ya if you have none

[kkiepvvessau]

''revs up to 200-2200rpm and the cuts down to about 1000rpm...you may have air in your cooling system, which leads to a blown head gasket '''

not quite
it throttle body problem and Map Sensor
change those two it should be normal ...
my prelude did the same things ... 200-2200rpm and the cuts down to about 1000rpm
it been acting for a yr , the car drink more gas
that all no other affect

[lucentinjection]

what i meant was 2000 -2200 rpm, then boggs down to 1000...the goes back up...it repeats that a few times then its normal....that says you're low on coolant/air in the system...it happeend to my CRX and i fried my head gasket...im not sayin thats the only thing that could be wrong, but it may be

[kkiepvvessau]

it have to do with coolant but in that case is not low coolent, it the map sensor . my car always full of coolent in radiator and spare bottle