Where to begin tricky car questions

[Katz1002]

Hi my name is Clayton im new to the forum and have a few questions i have a 1994 Eagle Talon DL 1.8 N/T. I bought the car for $250 running and drove it 150 feet to my house here is whats been done and what problems im having. id post pics if i could its a very nice car probably worth a thousand easy. ( well after i get the engine taken care of)

stuff ive done: plugs, wires, cap, rotor, throttle body cleaned with airesol berrymans b12 chemtool, rislone in oil, berrymans liquid in gas.

Problems:

#1. My car will idle all day long but start trying to go fast and it over heats fairly quickly. previous owner removed thermostat i replaced with 180 degree thermo. ensured water pump was working flushed rad.

#2. liquid in #1, maybe #3 cylinder after dad pinned the temp guage for awhile.(either head gasket or cracked head i think

#3 rad hoses rock hard when running, fan is ALWAYS on as soon as you turn the key the fan comes on. fan didnt run all the time before i took the rad out to clean it also revealing the car had been in an accident because the condensor was bent back all the way to the radiator but still was in good shape

#4 running way rich. fouled spark plugs in 20 - 30 miles black rich foul not oil car smells bad also not much other info on this issue clogged return maybe?

#5 the stock air box was replaced with an aftermarket style intake consisting of a 4 to 5 inch diameter chrome tube going from throttle body to MAF causing hesitation i think also the K&N filter sits on the rad bottle and looks as if it has almost rubbed a hole in a AC hose not good

#6 I may be interested in doing some mods on it what are some of the easy horsepower mods i could do?

 

[97gst_spyder]

You need to check the compression. The tool is like $20 from Harbor Freight, or go rent it from an autoparts store.

 

[Katz1002]

i have one will do later but sounds all right when turning over and not missing so i dont think compression issues but i still should

 

[Tyeler18]

Is your CEL on?

You may not be going into closed loop, hence the fans staying on etc- this could be caused by a fault upstream o2, bad coolant temp sensor.

Is your MAF hooked up to your intake?

Have you replaced the plugs again? That should help with quite a few issues.

Also, like you said it sounds like either a warped head or a headgasket failure. Do a compression test first and see how the numbers come out.

Lastly, on the 1.8 there really isn't a whole lot of HP to be gained from it short of FI. Most people will tell you just to fix it, sell it, and buy a turboed dsm.

i have one will do later but sounds all right when turning over and not missing so i dont think compression issues but i still should

Compression issues don't normally cause it to sound funny at idle. My friends 1g had 10psi, 25, 50, and 100 from 1 through 4 and it turned over just fine.

 

[Katz1002]

im used to working on old mercedes and chevys stepping over to a mitsubishi as actually a big change, and ill get more plugs, and I dont want to get rid of the car because its one of those under a $1000 kinda cars i havent even spent $500 yet buying the car included so ill probably get it running good and drive it till its farm car material 250,000 miles + and it goes to the farm to be a stunt car , right now it has 140,000 miles so i still got awhile before that happens. ill do compression tonight and no no check engine light

 

[Benshooter]

Your radiator hoses are likely rock hard from the cooling system being pressurized due to a blown head gasket. After you do a compression test, do a leakdown test. Not so much to see how much air is leaking, but where it's going.