ok guys, i'm not sure exactly how my car got messed up...my brother was driving it w/out my permission and said it just "suddenly overheated". which i highly doubt, but i can never get that fool to tell me the truth or give me a straight answer.

anyways, the car has been sitting for a few months since he last used it, so i swapped the oil, topped off the radiator and got ready to to turn the key. thing is, when i push the start button you can hear the car TRYING to turn over, but it just wont. i notice that after i hold the start button for about 4-5 seconds i can see bubbles coming from inside the radiator reservoir. also, the radiator cap that i have is bad, and kinda leaks a bit...but i can see fluid being pushed out there as well.

does anyone have any kind of idea what would be putting that much pressure on the cooling system? i took a sniff when i pulled off the radiator reservoir cap, and it smelled like gas

anyone have any idea whats up?

 

ouch pull ur plugs and see what it looks like inside there...

 

Did you disconnect the battery when you had it parked up? If not you made need to get it charged.

My opinion, if the cap is bad and you see the coolant bubbling out its because you need to replace the cap. Gasket/Seals gone bad. Resivor most likely because of air being in the system. No idea why your smelling gas though.
That's also probably why it overheated when your brother was driving it.

 

my brother didnt' disconnect the battery, so that one is done. but i have a brand new one that i'm using in it right now. as far as replacing the radiator cap, i can do that manana...thats not a biggie, but thats not the problem. thankfully its allowing me to see the symptom (air being pushed into the system), but it isn't the problem.

 

i just pulled the plugs, and they're really soaking w/ gas. i dont know how/why there was that much unspent fuel in the cylinder but they plus were really wet, all 4 of them. hopefully that was the reason why there wasn't any spark. i'm gonna let the cylinders dry out for 10-15 minutes or so, and let the plugs dry as well then give it another shot

 

Good luck. The only reason I can think of is if your bro overheated it real bad, + warped the head.

= No compression = no ignition = lots of fuel without starting.

 

ok, so i'm finally home right now from school. before i pick up a compression tester from autozone i tried to start the car again, and its sounds like its a hell of a lot closer to starting than it was yesterday.

my thoughts: could it possibly be bad fuel? i know fuel can go bad when the vehicle has been sitting for an extended period of time (and in my case its been 7 months)...but would it ever get so bad that a car wouldn't be able to start? i added fuel stabilizer a few days ago, and then put in 2 gallons of fresh 91 octane yesterday before my first attempt to start...i'm just thinking possibly there's still a lot of bad fuel in the rail and in the lines.

what do you guys think?

 

any ideas guys?

 

Did you do the compression test?

 

i'm going to go pick up a compression tester right now, what should the values be ideally i think i saw in the manual for an f20 that it should be nominal at 228...is that correct? because all the searches i've seen have been around 245-260...