for some reason my car sometime lags...It usually snap my head alittle if i punch it, but sometime it lags and dont feel any force. It usually happens when engine is hot, but USUALLY. Does anyone else have this problem...lost of power. Also recently my car started to smell, dont know what it is burning. Also! for the first drive of the day i get white smoke coming out of the hood for first 5 min of driving...what mI smell and what it is burning...ALSO! anyoneELSE has a problem with there transmission picking up 2nd gear if your car is cold...wellllll mine does and its on its second tran.........well i still love my max......

thx for the help!

 

good to hear in a weird sorta way you car smokes under the hood for the first five mins. mine does too. i just cranked it up today for the first time in like 3 months and i noticed it. mine comes from the header area. iam gettin new custom exhaust next weekend and if it stops it ill let you know

 

if ya want advice of your car you have to let us know the mileage and whatnot. i bet your car burns some oil and your oil pressure is also low when it gets hot, right? ok well your engine probably has alot of miles on it and has been driven pretty hard. the engine needs a rebuild if i all that i wrote was correct. have fun

 

Automatic, or stick?

 

Thx for your replys, Yes it has a lot of mileage(150000)and yes I do drive it hard and its also and auto(but wish to make it to 5speed how much would that cost?). Is there any other things might be happening instead of having to rebuild the engine?

thx for your helps...

 

I'd worry about getting your car fixed before you plan on converting the tranny.

I doubt that you'd be burning oil at 150K, these engines hold up really well, especially if you change the oil every 3K miles. Considering you're already on your second tranny, I'd be kind of weary about the condition the car was in before you got it.

As for your problem, my guess is that your head gasket is going. I had the same problem with the lag of power when my head gasket went on my Cav at about 150K miles too. Eventually it'll start stalling out when starting up and then while you are driving it. If you don't get it replaced soon, your looking at cracked heads and your car won't run at all due to the fact that there won't be any engine compression. Head gaskets are pretty expensive for this car, in the neighborhood of $200, not to mention the fact that labor is really expensive as well. Consider yourself lucky if you can get it done for under $750. There also may have been some sensors damaged by the coolant, so that could also be contributing to the car running poorly.

You probably have some other problems as well, so you might want to get your car checked out by a professional before you start fixing it up. If it's in pretty bad shape, I'd consider selling it and getting something that you won't be sinking a lot of money into.

-C-

 

thx for the reply charles, selling it is not really an option cause I love this gold max to the max and yes I do change oil around every 3000. The lag of power happened long time ago, but other problems im having is new. I think Im smelling the stuff that is burn on the engine area, because if i clean the oil of off the red cover the spell is gone. Im not sure where is it leaking at. I checked the starters and the area around it and I dont see any creck of leak, but ill probably have to bring it in to shop. But the smoke i dont really know where is it coming from and also i had to change tran oil with only around 15000mile on it cause it was brown!--suppose to change every 30000?

 

Also, be sure to really check the color of the smoke coming out of the tailpipe. A blue-ish grey-ish smoke is burning oil. Which could be a lot of possible problems. Too many to list right now. But, if it really is pure white smoke, that is unburned fuel. Especially if it goes away after you start it. Double check the color of the smoke, and maybe we can help ya. Could be leaky injectors, fuel pressure regulator, blah blah blah.

 

Yeah, I can understand how hard it would be to part with the Max, I certainly would try everything to keep it running. As for the oil that you see on the red cover on the engine, that's just your valve cover gasket gone bad. It's not very difficult to replace, but you really won't lose to much oil through there, so that wouldn't be the main problem. However, that could be what is causing the smell coming from the engine compartment.

Check your coolant resevior to make sure you're not losing any coolant. It'll go down a bit overtime, especially if you run the A/C, but you shouldn't have to fill it more than once every few months, and even then it wouldn't be down that much. If your head gasket is bad, you'll have to fill your radiator up every week or two.

Definitely check the fuel system and check those computer codes. The computer can tell you if your car is running rich or lean and can let you know if you have any bad sensors. You'd be surprised how a bad sensor can really cause your car to run like sh*t.

-C-

 

Maybe you have clogged injectors???

 

Burning smell- my valve cover gaskets were leaking a little last year aqnd i put new gaskets on and now the burning smell is gone. The oil will drip onto the hot exhaust manifolds and make the burning smell and smoke sometimes. You can also try to just tighten them, sometimes the bolts get a little loose and it will allow oil to get by. I think they just use a regular phillips head bolt to keep them on.