So the story starts off like this.. The van, an 85 automatic. accelerating
from time to time on the hiway the engine would lose power. Like I was
taking my foot off the gas. With the pedal to the floor it would finally
pick back up. Anything else would be completely unresponsive. Curious I
thought, what the hell could this be?
  Well on the way to a wedding this past weekend, The exhaust manifold on
the left rear cylinder comes loose and gets noisy for the rest of the trip
(almost 3 hours). After returning home I take it to a mechanic for
inspection. My usual guy is on vacation (the acceleration problem has gotten
worse since the pipe fell off). He discovers a noise in the right side of
the engine that he believes it to be valves..in his opinion an adjustment is
needed. That doesn't really sit right with me. Patiently waiting for my
regular guy to get back to town I am faced with a worsening problem with
acceleration. The pipe is now back in place. Tonight the issue is really
bad, and after making a short 5 mile trip home I smell burning oil. quick
inspection shows that the exhaust has super heated. the engine temp guage is
about a third of the way up but my nose tells me somethings really wrong.
not to mention the site of smoke coming from the rear of the engine after
pulling off the lid. I'm totally stressed...
So how does it sound? I'm thinking it's time for an overhaul.. Anyone ever
had this sort of experience before? If you've seen this type of thing happen
before please let me know what you think I may be facing.
a million thanks
-Mike

_________________________________________________________________
Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com