the car sometimes struggles to start unless i open the throttle and when it gets warm and after driving a bit it sometimes randomly will lose rpms and die.
Also when i accelerate my exhaust blows white smoke and you can smell gas and the mpg is horrible. What can this be?

 

Tune up. Is there a lot of back firing? Check ur lower o-rings on ur injectors

 

Also, u might want to get a new distributor cap and rotor.... or at least get the both of them checked out. That might be a, if not the, problem why ur dying out

 

Theres no backfiring, and yeah dizzy cap and rotor are going on this weekend hopefully that solves it, could an O2 sensor cause the running rich problem?

 

Didn't even cross my mind about the O2 sensor. Yes, that could be a/the problem. I just replaced mine because my ka-t was burning through a 1/4 of a tank from driving to work and home in one day..... largo to down town Tampa. Now after changing the O2 sensor, I'm just using an 8th of the tank for the round trip. Mpg got better but the fumes not so much. Could just be that i don't have a cat. delete gasket but that's besides the point. Advance and Auto Zone's price is a few cents apart for the Bosch O2 sensor. The price is right around $30.00

 

Yeah i researched my ass off and for the most part they all said o2 sensor can cause the mpg problem, but i couldnt find anything about the dying. But i have a stock ka that burns half a tank in about 160mi a week and gas isnt cheap lol
can't wait to go ka-t though
Thanks for all your help i'll get back to you and let you know if this solved the problem

 

it blows white smoke and runs like ass.... sounds like a blown head gasket to me.

 

idk about a blown head, the smoke is barely noticeable and isn't very thick and smells like im burning too much fuel, and the oil didn't have any coolant or gas in it.
Car doesn't run like ass, it picks up fine and and sounds good except for random shutting off.

 

the coolant/oil/fuel doesn't have to mix for the head gasket to be blown. It doesn't have to be totally toast for it to be blown either. A lot of times, they just give out in one spot, and leak some coolant into the cylinder. makes it hard to start and causes it to smoke.


are you running water or anti freeze or a mix of both for coolant?
-white smoke is typically coolant/anti freeze.
when you're running rich, the smoke is typically black.

When you get on it, does it break up? Notice any misses at higher RPMs?

have you pulled any codes yet?
-might not show a check engine light, but the ecu could still have codes in it.

tried a different kind of gas?
- since they started adding ethanol to the fuel, the odds of getting bad gas have gone way way way way way way up. ethanol holds water, so if their tanks suck or even if the gas sat in their tanks for a little while without getting mixed up, the ethanol separates out, so instead of e10, you get more like e30 or e40. I've tested some fuels when they first did the switch that had been as bad as e60. Don't really see that so much any more, but bad gas still is a problem.

tracked down any vacuum leaks?

how does it die? does it stumble to death and tries to hang on? or does it just randomly shut off? do the dash lights stay on (as in, does the ecu still have power) when it dies?

Have you changed the coolant temp sensor? that can cause hard starts and running rich (or even lean) if it goes bad.

Been able to check fuel pressure? how old is the pump?

When was the last tune up? What did that include?

Have you tested the throttle position sensor?

How do all of the grounds look?

When it shuts off, does it start right back up or does it give you a hard time? Does it try to start up, or does it just turn and turn and turn until it finally fires?

 

Empire asks great stuff yeayea
i'll try to help a lil here...
I swapped this ka in b/c the one in it knocked BAD! It came from nizm0 Matt's car,test drove it b4 i bought it,he will vouch for it as it was auto and he used to drive his bone stock s14 just as a dd to work+home. It was swapped out for an sr not b/c it had probs.

It ran/idled great so it may be the bad gas or bad luck of one of the following you guys mentioned:
-headgasket
-o2(i advised it be changed)
-temp sensor(I advised to be changed)
-cap+rotor dont know mileage of them,etc...
-tps
-injector o rings
-It didnt have any vacuum leaks but anything is possible

it does smoke when you let it idle a while and then press the gas which obviously points to valve stem seals(Which i told,advised,even bought and gave to him)

It should have antifreeze/water mixture
Has brand new BKR5E's
Has brand new Felpro valve cover gaskets that leaked on the outside when i showed him the car. Has anyone ever had that happen? I torqued in sequence accordingly etc...wierd, never happened to me before ever.

I drove it around for like a week and a half and when i got back i would let it sit there and idle for 5-20 minute intervals to look around for any other leaks,noises,problems,etc...especially after I changed the front main. So no probs, no leaks whatsoever and it would sit there and idle perfectly,no temp issues,never ever died/stalled. It did miss a couple times but not bad and was not a problem. Sure hope you figure out the problem Richie, its a good car+motor.Let us know what you do and how it works/affects things.

I still need to come get that wing,lol,ill call you soon.

btw this should be in tech not lounge but tis fine