head gasket

[HeWhoKillz]

I have an 89 buick century with the little gutless 4 cylinder with almost no power at all. My girlfriend drove out of town about an hour away. She calls me and says the car is acting up. I told her I would be up there to get her and we would figure it out but it would be a couple of hours. I guess she didn't want to wait so she drives the car 3/4 of the way and parks it at an outlet mall about 10 miles away. I go and get her and I get in and start driving the car and it acts like the head gasket went. It misses but its not like when a spark plug is taken out of the engine but rather a heavy sputter and the gutless car's power is reduced to negative numbers as it took nearly a full minute to get up to 45 mph. I figured she had done enough damage to it that everything in the engine had burned up. I get it home and I can see a little bit of smoke at the bottom coming from behind the driver front tire but there wasnt any smoke from under the hood when I opened it. Today I went out to look at it since it sat all night and cooled off. I assumed if it was the head gasket that all of the fluids would have burned out and/or that the coolant would have been mixed with the oil. I look on the dipstick and only see oil. I don't see any coolant in the oil cap and the coolant is still in the radiator. I had a corolla with a head gasket issue and it always burned up the coolant but that was because the thermostat and the fliuds were in fact mixed. Are there any other tests I can do to make sure it is or isn't the head gasket before I put money into a car this old? I bought the car for 200 bucks and had it for almost two years without too many issues but I don't know if I want to put money into something that might just be better off being replaced with something newer.

[FishFind]

You must do a compression test. You can find how on here with little effort.

I would check the tranny fluid level after what I just read. If all the oil is in there.

[HeWhoKillz]

How would the tranny cause a major sputter and power loss?

[Tech II]

Could be a bad cat/plugged exhaust.....

[FishFind]

Originally Posted by HeWhoKillz

How would the tranny cause a major sputter and power loss?

If he sees smoke burning and no oil is going anywhere it has to be something. No power could be a slipping tranny.

[GTP Dad]

A leaking head gasket if it completely let go while driving could cause the issues you indicated especially if the two cylinders involved are adjoining. I would do the compression test. It is simple and easily done. As Tech II indicated if the compression test proves OK then a blocked cat is certainly the most likely cause of your problems.