94 Metro problems

My '94 Metro (which I aquired a little over two weeks ago) is giving me a few problems. The problems that I used to have with it is that it would idle very rough and then eventually stall when the engine was hot, but ran fine when I just started it. I have since givin it a new distributer rotor, cap, wires, and plugs. I have also dumped in some dry gas and fuel injector cleaner and now the car idels, but very rough. I had a friend of mine do a compression test and I'm getting 100 in cylinders one and two, and then 50 in the third (very low I'm sure).

The remaining problems that I'm having is oil leakage, rough idle, and a radling noise coming from the engine when I really press on the gas. The oil only leaks when the engine is running and is coming from two places. One seems to be coming from somewhere around the timing belt and the other is dripping from the where the distributer screws in to. I'm guessing that's the camshaft seal? The car will not stall at idle anymore, but the car shakes pretty bad. There is also a radling noise that seems to be coming from the engine and it will only do it when I press down more than 1/4 of the way on the gas petal. It won't make the noise when I rev the engine though.

The odometer says there's about 82,000 miles on the car, but I was told by someone the engine was probably from another Geo. It's a 3 cylinder 1.0 liter. Any idea about the low idle or anything else?

Your compression is very low. Stock compression is around 185psi. Any variation on compression can cause a shimmy because of the imbalance, as one cylinder isn't generating as much power on the combustion stroke as the others. This is much more aparent as the numbers of cylinders an engine has drops (ie: you aren't going to notice a 10psi drop in compression on a 350 V8 as much as on a 3 cylinder). I'd be willing to bet money the reason good ol' #3 is lowest is due to a burned out exhaust valve. A VERY common problem on the old 3 cylinder. My guess as to why the engine will not stall out when cold as opposed to warm is because the engine computer will keep the engine idling higher the colder the engine is. As the temperature increases, the electronic idle speed control drops. In your case, due to the lack of low end power due to low compression, what would be considered "high" idle for a normal engine is "normal", so when the engine warms up, it drops too low and stalls. Remedy for the short term is increase the base idle so that you can offset this compression loss. On the driver's side of the throttle body, there is a screw under the air cleaner assembly. This can be used to manually increase the base idle speed so you don't stall out. Turn the screw to the left to increase idle speed. As for your oil loss from the distributor, this is caused by a worn distributor o-ring. If you remove the two bolts that hold the distributor to the engine, after having made your timing marks, you can pull the distributor off. This will reveal the faulty o-ring. I wasn't ever able to make a match from generic o-ring sets, so I went to Chevrolet for it. It costs an outregous $9.00. Finally, the rattling sound you are hearing may be caused by a couple of things. Your oil pump may not be sending enough oil up to the rocker arms to keep them primed, which will cause a loud rattle. Another possibility, your hydraulic valve lash adjusters may be showing their age. When they are on their way out, they rattle. Also, your ignition timing may be off, which can cause a shimmy and a tapping sound.

Blah... sorry if I babbled on. It's late and I haven't slept.

Sounds like you may have a blown headgasket. Pop your radiator cap off, start your engine, and see if you can see bubbles in the coolant when the engine gets warm.

do a compression check after the new head gasket and check the valves for proper seal and clearances if its still not within 20 or less psi from the other cylinders

Thanks for the help so far. My friend and I are going to rip the engine apart this summer and send the head out to get a valve job done. Something strange happend the other day. My check engine light has been on for a few weeks and yesterday I ran over a bump in the road and shortly after that, the light turned off. One problem solved I guess :smile: .

The car will idle now, but very rough and sometimes wants to stall. When I come to a stop, the engine will sometimes start to idle so low, the oil light will come on but then the engine will "rev" itself and idle normally (but very rought still) again. Is this the computer correcting something in the engine or something?

The IAC solenoid is doing that. It's an air valve that maintains your idle when it gets low, such as when you turn on headlights or a/c.

Would it really matter what grade of gas I put in?

No. Metros call for 87 octane, or regular gas. It will not hurt your engine to run premium, but it's not going to help it either. The way gas prices are nowadays, I wouldn't spend the extra 20 cents/gallon on it.