Major diagnosis help!!! PLEASE!!!!

[bodyboarder20]

Okay to begin, let me start my sayign i bought this 95 altima that im working on because I trusted my brother "the mechanic" and he said all it needed was timing chain replacement done on it.Since then, i popped the hood and it needed way more than that, including missing distributor and wires.

I started pulling the valve cover today to start on the timing chain replacement, adn Ive got a huge problem! water in my oil! (noticed this actually when i replaced the oil) There is also oil ontop of the two pistons closest to the distributor.

So from here, Im guessing the head gasket needs to be replaced. its got 180k on the clock, think the head is gonna be to warped to use? Secondly, im not a prob about engine internals. The oil ontop of the pistons. Could that be because of the car sitting so long? It sat for about 4 months, then i got it towed from SC to VA. It sat for another 2 months. Then i got the parts it needed jstu to get it to start up. It did start up but ive got some def white smoke, (not as bad as it was at first). I havent started the car in a couple of weeks before today. Today i only started it because i put some engine gunk stuff in it to loosen some debris before I drained the oil.

What should I do?!?

Ive never taken this car for any drives or anything. just from one side of the parking lot to the other.

I dont intend to keep this car. (its got crazy bad karma goin for me)I just want to get it running suitibly and get the damn thing sold (the body adn interior are in mint!)

Should I pull teh head, hope its not warped, replace the headgasket. If the rings ARE bad in those two pistons, is it a fair enough (easy enough) job to replace them w/o pulling the lower end? Otherwise, just go on and replace the timing chain, and get the damn thing moving....



never again will i put trust in my brother. Im going to lose so much money in this deal...

sorry for the crazy long explanation. Thanks in advance for your help!!!

[s13sr20chris]

honestly, with those issues you should try to see it run BEFORE pulling it apart if at all possible. when you pull it apart i would yank it out first. the altima is not the most friendly car for engine work and you may be opening up a can of worms anyhow.

[bodyboarder20]

i know the car DOES run... it had timing chaing clatter, so I was in the midst of resolving that issue when i noticed the water/coolant mix going on. Does the oil cooler ever go bad in these cars??

[NISTECH]

drain the fluids from it,coolant and oil. change the oil filter refill the engine with oil and the cooling system with straight water[it wont be staying in so no need to waste money on coolant. Fire it up and take it for a drive. If all this is really a problem with the car it wont do much more damage. then after recheck for the cross contamination see if its present. Since this car has been sitting so long its hard to say if some of that is really a problem or not. You basicaly need to start freash looking at this car and evaluate what is really a problem. also before driving it either clean the plugs that are in it or throw in a fresh set.

[bodyboarder20]

I did replace the oil and coolant in the car about 2 weeks ago. Because it had been towed to me w/ no coolant or oil in it. So i drained what was in there adn refilled. And I ran the car periodically during the past two weeks. Yesterday when i went to drain the fluids to start on the timing chain work, i noticed the cross contamination... There is indeed a leak somewhere. Second, you can look down the hole where the spark plugs sit, and see the fluid sittin on top of the pistons as well as see it on the end of the spark plugs.

[NISTECH]

Well then you have a blown head gasket or cracked head. The only oil cooler the altima has is the auto trans oil cooler located in the radiator. They dont go that often.