VS v6 Is it the Cylinder(s) or Gasket, or something?

[phwc]

My story -
i own a Commodore VS series II, 1997, v6, 3.8L, 280000km run. 4 weeks ago the car produced the following symptoms

1, door, steer wheel intermittently trembling

2, slight burnt oil smell drawn into passenger compartment

3, no bubbles blown out from the raditor (when car turned on), but some muddy oily sticky stuff found underneath the radiator cap (my friend said it might be a mix of oil and water, any body get an idea for this?)

4, fuel used up way faster than before (before ran 400km with 59Litre, Now run 200-240km with full fuel refill)

5, hard to speed up and losing power,

6, no smoke come out either from exhaust pipe or engine

all these conditions started and persisted ever since 4 weeks ago.

Questions
1) What would be probably the problem with these creepy symptoms of my car? some of my friends suggested it might be the problem of the cylinder(s), but some said it could be the gasket warped?

2) in the case of cylinder/gasket, how can i determine if the main problem is attributed to the cylinder(s) or the gasket? (any feasible methods)

3) also in the case of cylinder/gasket, some suggested me to get a reconditioned engine that fits my car either from wreckers or dealers; other reckoned open up the engine and have a look inside and see if it is gasket warped, and replace it with a new one ($120 to 150) by myself because its cheap this way, so what you think?

4) any questions/comments of yours?

Million thanks to whoever cares to be part of my thread!!!

[hako]

First I'd run the error codes:Checking error codes VR/VS (Revised)
Can you remember what happened 4 weeks ago ---- did it overheat, does it have the correct green coolant, does it use any oil?
The oil in the radiator cap is really inconclusive evidence of a problem. It may be something as simple as bad plugs/leads or even a blocked catalytic converter.
I'd also pull the sparkplugs and inspect them....and check the codes!
Good Luck.

[baza]

firstly, that gunky oily stuff on bottom of radiator cap if it is brown color is probably from the pellets that they sometimes put in with the coolant . 280000 kms is fairly high for a vs but depends how it has been maintained and driven. i reckon you should get a mechanic to do a compression test on your motor, its simple to do and not expensive. that will confirm if head gasket is blown or if it has problem with leaking or burnt valves in the head. only attempt to do the mechanical work yourself if you have good tools , tension wrench etc , and some experience. if one head surface is warped past limit .15mm you will have to machine both heads. but if motor is not loseing coolant or not overheating you may have issues with tune, spark plugs and leads, fuel filter , injectors , fuel pump, coilpacks, ignition module , sensors etc. and welcome to the forum , read up in the forum about how to do searches , that can really help finding information. and dont rush into buying second hand engines from wreckers unless yours is really bad, even then make sure wrecker gives a decent written warranty with motor. cheers.........

[Brett_jjj]

Get the cooling system pressure tested,and get the cylinder compression tested as well.These tests are cheap to get done and will tell you if anything is up with the cooling system or head gaskets etc.Engines dont always get coolant mixed with oil when a head gasket blows,so you dont always get the white stuff under the oil cap.

[phwc]

to be upfront, this is my first car, im as a blank paper about cars.

what happened 4 weeks ago is that i came back from oversea (but i had my friend driving my car only as not to screw up the battery). it been 7 months since i left and the car last serviced, some day i started it up after a normal raining day, car engine had this hugh knocking noise, when i tried accelerate, it wont, or it would after i pushed hard for 5 second, seemed to me it lost power despite the knocking noise.

i waited a few more days before headed to my mechanist, they spotted immidiately the car long time no serviced, they then repalced some spark plugs and high tension leads (but no service performed as i replacing these 2 things would be enough and wanted save money), the car powerful again but still with knocking noise, they claimed its a result of poor maintanence.

few more days after that i couldnt stand the noise so i came back to my mechanist and had a service, this time they wrote "cylinder fire missing, #5 cylinder miss" on the invoice, and said "just drive as you will, its way expensive to have a diagnosis of the engine"

this is how i came along with my car, ever since some of my friends reckoned there may be some ways i could fix the problem, i started googled, youtubed alot to find out by myself what the real problem could be. by chance, by searching results, it is likely my car's problem may be either cylinder blown or gasket warped

What is happening now is
1) i notice the green coolant fluid running low (1 week ago it was about full)
2) i notice that i hardly see any fuild in the engine oil container

[baza]

i seriously think you should sign up for a car maintenance course at a college somewhere . read the above posts from hako , brett and myself . if you dont understand the information get the car to a local well respected mechanic , quickly !!! cheers..........