Morning Everyone-Bit of Help Needed

[vandal]

Well on my way to work, the car started to act funny. It's a 91 SE w/ auto transmission. I just picked the car up over the weekend and it's my first Nissan, so I'm not too familiar with the quirks of it yet..Anyway, last night the car overheated a bit while idling, but it leveled off when I started driving. No loss of power, only time it happened. Made a note to myself to pick up a t-stat today because it wasn't then and isn't now blowing any white smoke. Did smell a bit of coolant burning when it was peaked.

About 6 miles into my drive the car started bucking at around 50mph. Wouldn't go any faster and would seriously protest any need for an increase in speed. I pulled over and watched at idle. It was fighting to hold idle and BARELY succeeding. Tried to make it another 150 feet into a gas station and it's truly acting like it's only running on 3 cylinders. The car didn't mind downhill too much, but it barely made it up the little hill into the station.

Just as another sidenote-This morning when I started it up, I let it idle and warm up. After almost 10mins the temp needle was still on C, but as soon as the car started moving it immediately shot up to the middle. That's making me lean towards the coolant temp sensor being the issue, but I want to double check with the more experienced members.

For the few days before this the car ran beautifully! I was truly impressed by it the first time I drove it.

As I said I'm not familiar with this car at all yet, so my questions are-Is this just a vacuum leak? Spark problem? Head Gasket? What should I look into as the culprit?

[AZhitman]

Welcome aboard!

You didn't mention what model car you bought, but in this case it's not terribly relevant.

What you're describing sounds like a leaking head gasket due to overheating. Nissans are not fond of excessive cylinder head temperatures.

I hope you topped off with water after you smelled coolant.

I'd replace the thermostat, coolant temp sensor, the temp sensor for the ECU (most Nissans have 2 temp sensors), the coolant, the radiator cap, the fan clutch, and make sure to clean any debris from between the radiator and condenser (might be easiest just to remove the radiator and clean up in there).

Once that's all done, see if the car still acts up. If so, you're likely looking at a head gasket.

[vandal]

Well..I got a chance to look under the hood and it wasn't anything major thank god. The seals for the spark plug tubes went, allowing oil in there. Got a new seal, new plugs, wires, cleaned it up and all done.