Deisel?

[EngulfingFlame]

OK guys, lets just say, hypothetically you were to get a eighth of a tank of gas (added to another eighth of a tank) at a local gas station. But when you get five miles out of town your car dies. You start it and it kinda sorta idles, and then it dies. You have had no problems with your car lately and you drove it very kindly to the spot of its death. There you try and get it to run. You can hear it trying to suck air in through the ginormous K&N 454 intake but once it gets the air there is horrible firing problems. When you have a friend give it just enough throttle to keep it alive and you smell the exhaust it does not smell like oil burning, and it doesn't smell like a very rich air/fuel mixture burning. It smells... kinda sweet and gives you one hell of an instant headache. Could this be due to diesel fuel being mixed up at a gas station or does it sound more like possibly coolant making it into the cylinders, or anything you might have an idea about? I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me on this one.
Thanks,
EngulfingFlame

[383PhoenixAm]

firing problems? Is this a deisel or a spark gas car?

[EngulfingFlame]

This is a 1984 nissan 300zx 3.0 litre V6. Adn its supposed to run on gasoline.

[Moppie]

Diesel does not have a sweet smell, and it will produce a very thick black or grey smoke out of the exhaust if the car manages to fire. (Iv seen an early 80s 6cyl Ford Falcon run quite well on straight desiel).


The sweet smell sounds like coolant, which is generaly a very bad thing.
It would also expain the rough running.

However, a bad ignition and or fuel system could also give the same symptoms.

[Wolf]

Yeah, sweet smell = coolant.
I'll bet you blew the head gasket.

[EngulfingFlame]

Well i went to change the fuel filter and what came out was definitely gasoline. So now i worry about a blown head gasket or electrical failure. I am really hoping that it is neither but whatever works. Would the headgasket just have gone all of a sudden like that and would there be any external leakage visible? I had a friend tell me that it could be the throttle position sensor had just gone bad and my father told me that it is generally the electrical components that go all at once and don't slowly go bad. also would the engine even start and/or fire with coolant in the cylinders? It tries to run but as soon as i give it any gas it lopes and dies. If the TPS is the case do you guys know of any good online Nissan parts warehouses, it looks like no one sells the correct year part?
Thanks again, EngulfingFlame

[benchtest]

Have you looked in the radiator? Is there any coolant in it? If no, fill it up, start it and watch for bubbles. A sizable quantity would indicate a possible head gasket/cracked head/cracked block. Any competent shop can test for combustion gases in the cooling system also. As the others have stated, a sweet smell is coolant

[Reed]

my friend had a cracked head and there was a bunch of white smoke and a similar smell and the car ran as you are describing. I'm not suggesting you have a cracked head probably just a blown head gasket but either way those are symptoms of coolant in the cylinders.

[CBFryman]

Just pray that it is a head gasket...did you gun it with in the immediate past before it died? if so it is probably just the gasket...if not it could be one of the three (gasket, crackeb block, cracked head) if it truns out to not be the gasket better hope its the head...heads are expensive but blocks take the cake (since that is the base of any piston engine)