Toolrocks

iTrader: (1)

Hey all - sorry this may be a little long (rant). I spent all day Saturday working on my car only to find out later that day that most of my "fixes" didn't do a damn thing. I have a 95 SE Fed Spec and recently had a 704 code, which is EVAP pressure sensor. Using both my Haynes and FSM I went about trying to test and diagnose the problem. My charcoal canister is inside the engine bay between the brake booster and the fuel filter. There is no easy way to get the canister out of my car. I have ABS also, so there is a big pump/motor in the way. Anyway, the top of the canister has the purge control valve on it. There are three hoses, like there are supposed to be. The weird thing about my system is that the bottom of the canister is, I think, supposed to be vented to air. Well mine has a hose comming off the bottom that is tapped into w/ a T fitting. From the T fitting, one hose goes to what looks like a PCV valve and the other hose connects onto a metal tube that looks like it would run back to the fuel tank. Checking for leaks I find that the metal tube stops right after the firewall and has nothing connected to it???? Weird, so I have one hose venting to nothing, and another hose T'd off of that going to a valve. I couldn't find a fuel check valve so I'm wondering if this PCV looking thing is the fuel check valve - remember though, it doesn't return to the fuel tank. Anyway, after turning the canister over and over and never finding a way to get it out of the engine bay I put it all back together. Well, the CEL is off, the car starts much better now, my gas mileage looks to be normal again. So my question is, is my EVAP system a freak of nature? ALso, I found traces of oil in my coolant - that can only point to a blown/leaking head gasket right? Thanks for reading all this.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Sounds like you had your hands full this weekend. The Evap system is a PITA.

Traces of oil in your coolant isn't exactly normal. A blown head gasket will usually give you the opposite, water/coolant in your oil. When the cooling system is hot it's under pressure and thats when it can push some coolant past a bad head gasket and get into your oil. I suppose if a pressurized oil channel was near a crack in your head gasket it could weep some oil into your coolant before the cooling system becomes pressurized. I don't think thats a very common head gasket failure but it's possible.

Monitor all your fluids very carefully from now on. If the oil/coolant thing keeps happening, you'd better get that head gasket changed before it gets any worse.

Toolrocks

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the reply. I plan to monitor all my fluids - I am good about that. I will probably flush my coolant system. So far everything seems all right. CEL is still off after 2 days of long driving so that's good. I plan on doing a vacuum test as well as a compression test. Thanks again for the response.