Im new to the forum and figured I would see what you all think about my situation. Last night I traded my 95 Honda civic for an 89 Chevy stepside with a 4.3 V6 and a 5-speed tranny. I thought it was a good deal, but now im thinking I got screwed. I drove it home with no problem, drove it to work this morning with no problem. When I started the truck after work, I noticed it smoked (white smoke) alittle, then stopped smoking. When i got on the highway and accelerated to get up to speed, it poured black smoke for a short period of time, then stopped smoking. I could hear sizzling while it was smoking. I watched it for the rest of my short ride home, and nothing. When I got home, I popped the hood and noticed oil standing on the left side valve cover. Im sure this is nothing too major, but it still concerns me. I noticed the engine seems to run alittle rough when driving in lower gears (1st, 2nd, and 3rd). I guess my question is, should i try to repair this engine or just get another one. And if I try for another one, what are the odds of getting a decent engine from a junk yard? I dont have alot of money but definitely want something reliable. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

I would recommend trying to troubleshoot your engine first. It could be something easy to fix. Your always rolling the dice with a junk yard motor and could possibly end up with a worse problem after all that work. Start by pulling your spark plugs and see what they look like. Do a compression test (most auto parts stores will loan you the tester). If your motor isn't knocking and has decent compression I would just fix it.

 

Any ideas of what this could be? My step dad said that sometimes the vaccumm input on the front of the trottle body gets clogged and that could cause what its doing. I checked that, it WAS clogged, so I cleaned it out enough for it to be able to suck air through again. That did not fix the problem. It still idles rough and runs rough through 3rd gear. 4th and 5th gears it runs great. The oil level gauge jumps around when at idle as well. And also smokes (white) while accellerating through 3rd gear. I just dont understand why it does this except while cruising. Any ideas would be great.

 

I still would check all your iginition system parts - plugs, rotor, cap, and wires. Like I said already while the plugs are out take a couple extra minutes and put a compression gauge to it. That will tell you a lot.

 

Good start. I will definitely try that. The guy said that he replaced the distributor, and im not sure he knew what he was doing. Thank you for your advice. I will post whether this is the problem or not after a check it.