Help diagnosing power loss / smoking

[skyrunner]

Hey guys, I just bought a 95 nissan sentra that was in bad exterior shape, but seemed to run fine. After driving it for 2 weeks the thing started smoking on me. It seems to happen very intermittently at cruise, and after the car is warm. I will get a surging throttle (noticeable loss of power) followed by a cloud of smoke (normally looks whitish to me, but sometimes is a little blue) and then it will be fine for a few minutes until it happens again. I put NGK plugs and new wires on the car because a friend thought it might be ignition related. I have yet to check the fuel filter (anyone have some pics on replacing it??) but I did do a compression test. It was 110-120 on all 4 cylinders. That seems really low to me, but I am new to these cars so I figured I would ask here. If the motor is shot, I will just junk the car (unless someone on here wants it), but I want to make sure that it is dead before I give up on it. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[MiXdNuTs]

The fuel filter looks like a metal acorn the size of your fist. It sits beside the front rt strut and the firewall. A simple screw driver is all you need to replace it once you take the pressure off your fuel line.

As for the engine problem, I would say run it by a shop and get their oppinion. It may be something simple or you could need some new seals and gaskets.

You may also want to run some fuel injector cleaner through your car.

I had power loss in my 94, but it was due to a loose plug wire.

[nismo_pilot]

an even 120 across the board would mean your head gasket is fried, or every single one of your pistons has a bad ring, compression should be around 180, headgasket is a fucking pita, id swap new motors or just get a new car

[skyrunner]

Originally Posted by nismo_pilot

an even 120 across the board would mean your head gasket is fried, or every single one of your pistons has a bad ring, compression should be around 180, headgasket is a fucking pita, id swap new motors or just get a new car

Thats what I was thinking, oh well... I was so surprised by the low numbers that I did the compression test 3 times (once cold and twice warm) to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong. I may keep the car around because I've never done a head gasket before and I think it would be fun to try it on a car that I don't care about.

Guess I am back to searching for a winter beater again Anyone selling something ugly but running well for cheap?

[nismo_pilot]

that would be the perfect motor if you wanted to tear one all the way down and build it, other than that idk dude

[MiXdNuTs]

I have heard a million times how hard a head gasket job is, but what exactly makes it so hard. Do you have to remoe the engine block and take everything apart or what?

[nismo_pilot]

you have to pull everything on the top of the motor, you might as well tear the whole thing down because youll need to break down 75% of the whole motor