Blue smoke, gas smell, won't start

[Yorb]

My S13 started belching BLUE smoke driving home today, and was sputtering/balking a little bit occasionally, and probably dropped 1/3 tank in about 20 miles. It conked out completely at the first light, bottom of the off-ramp, and I couldn't keep it alive. It wouldn't rev, just straight up died. Waited for a while, wouldn't start.

Definite smell of gas, but the oil looks clean and there's no obvious problem under the hood. My friend had me pull the fuel pump fuse and try to start it, still no go. It tries, but never turns over all the way. He says it's the fuel regulator, and that it probably ruined my plugs too. Any idea? I had it towed to my house, but I'd like to get it running ASAP, otherwise I have problems.

Any help? Should I buy a regulator & plugs and try that, or is there something else to try first?

Possibly-related side note: it ran on a dead injector for months, and I just recently swapped it with a working injector, which is still not 100% but at least all 4 cylinders were working. Only other thing I did recently was top off the power steering with stop-leak because it has a leak (did that yesterday).

[Yorb]

update - ECU is not throwing any codes, and the engine won't even roll over more than a couple times now before it gives up. gonna go pick up a new fpr.... but i haven't found anywhere any help on how to get the old one out. FSM is no help either.

?! :/

[Spinn3r]

fist check compression, on each cylinder - let us know.

[phanatikz32]

i'm pretty sure blue smoke is a valve problem. if your not mechanically inclined enough to know for sure what it is from the color of the smoke or the way the car is acting i'd suggest taking it to a local shop you trust and having them diagnose it. after you know what it is for sure you can go about either fixing it yourself or paying them to do it. its good to ask on here to see what it possibly could be so you can have an idea of what could be wrong but you should atleast get a certified mechanic to diagnose it.

[Yorb]

luckily (maybe), my roommate's dad is a pretty genius mechanic. he diagnosed over the phone and had us replace the FPR and then the plugs because he said it was probably being flooded by gas due to the broken pressure regulator. so, after doing all that, the farthest we got was pulling the fuel pump fuse and starting with the pedal to the floor. in that situation, it will start after a few tries. then i can keep it running by immediately putting the fuse back in and keeping my foot on the gas a little, but it plumes white smoke like nobody's business. Dies as soon as I release the accelerator. oil has gas in it too :/ so i'll replace the oil as soon as we figure out what the prob is and fix it.

So, his dad is like 90% sure that its a bad FPR. So we're gonna swap it again tomorrow for another. He didn't mention a compression test, but I'll do that if this fails. oh, and turns out the #1 injector that I had replaced before had a completely unseated gasket and was drip-drip-drippin. awesome. anyway, thanks for the suggestions and i'll keep yall posted.

[phanatikz32]

wow leaky injector that sucks, but either way the fpr is a relatively easy fix on an s chassis good luck man

[90 S13 VG30ETT]

wow sorry to hear you rhaving problems. but blue smoke is oil, white smoke is coolant. if the blue smoke is that bad, u might have some broken rings and then lack of oil WILL kill ur rod and main bearings. till the rods weld them selves to the cran. at the point pull and throw away.

if the FPR is stuck open it will have a high idl, not be stuggling to keep it running.

try pulling all the plugs and and see if it turns easy using a socket and ratchet, make sure u turn int in the direction it turns when running thou.

[Yorb]

update:

we ended up changing the head gasket after finding gas in the oil and seeing all the white smoke and not knowing what the hell else it could be. oh and the compression check showed a little weak, especially on #1.

so, cars back together, and actually started first time! hurray problem is, it still runs like a**. here's a bad phone video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehTyhDivh1o

it idles without dying, with a fairly regular idle, but it's rough and messing with the distributor doesn't fix it, so I guess it's not timing?

also, possibly related: after it warms up, exhaust-looking smoke floats up from the exhaust manifold area. can't tell exactly where it's coming from, looks like somewhere under the manifold. after the car is turned off it keeps smoking for a few minutes, so maybe it's just outer grease/buildup being burned off? i dunno.

the battery doesn't hold a charge at all anymore but that's unrelated.

suspects:1. vacuum hoses on the back of the head. I may have switched them around. specifically the three towards the bottom that are a huge pain in the a** to get to.2. exhaust manifold gaskets. we didn't replace them. would a bad seal there cause this kind of a rough idle?3. ??? your ideas here

frankly, i'm just happy it started :P now I hope i don't have to do it again.

ideas anyone?