Ok so here is the story.

Several days ago, I was driving down the highway towards my house. I looked down at my gauges and my temp gauge (100-260F) read 100F, which was weird because I had been driving for a good 15 minutes. I kept my eye on it and all of a sudden it was at 245F. I immediately took an exit and headed straight for a parking lot, but I had to stop at a light, and there the car died. My dad came and towed me into the lot, and we popped the hood. There was not a lot of radiator fluid, and the water pump was leaking pretty seriously, about a cup every 2 or 3 minutes.

Anyways we ran to the store and got some distilled water, filled it up, and started it. This was the first time that the rough idle appeared. We limped it home (about 3 miles on city streets) and let it sit overnight.

The next day, I flushed the radiator and replaced the water pump and tested it out, and unexpectedly, the rough idle did not go away. I tried revving the engine in park to see if that would help it smooth out, but it did nothing.

After that, I changed the oil and replaced the oil filter. Still nothing. I replaced all the spark plugs and spark plug wires. Still nothing. ***I also ran the car for about 5 seconds each without one of the spark plug wires attached and it didn't sound any different!*** I cleaned the carburetor, the EGR valve, and the O2 sensor on the intake manifold as well and nothing helped.

So basically I have no idea what is going wrong. Once the engine is at 1000rpm it runs fine, but anything below that and the engine shakes in its mounts pretty hard. It also idles pretty low, about 500-700 rpm, even though we adjusted the idle speed on the throttle body to its max.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Run a compression test on each cylinder. You might have warped a head and/or popped a head gasket.

 

Do I need to take it into a shop to do a compression test or can I do it at home?

 

If you can pull the plugs, you can do a compression test. You will need a compression gauge ($30-$50).

 

if that is the problem do you think it will keep driving for a significant amount of time? I am looking to fix this one just enough to keep it running decently long enough until I buy a different car.

 

I am 17 and have a very limited amount of money to spend fixing this thing.

 

what swartlkk said do that test if so your gonna need to replace your head or head gaskets

 

i don't think that is the problem because if it was a compression issue, it would affect the car at all rpm's, and it only happens when i am below 1000rpm.

I also replaced the cap and rotor today and the rough idle got a lot better, but it is still there a little, especially when the car is in drive or reverse and I have the brake keeping it still.

 

clogged cat converter? bad fuel filter? spider injection leaking?

 

i can smell a hint of gas while the car is running.....i might try the fuel filter either today or tomorrow. I am also gonna put some h2o neutralizer in the tank next time i fill up to see if that will help.