Hi My 22 year old drives my 96R. It has a rebuilt head and about 120k miles.

He was driving back into san francisco over the bay bridge last week. After he got off the bridge and was still on the freeway the check engine light came on then steam from under the hood. he calls me on my cell and I tell him to stop the car he says no where to pull over. I tell him to get off the next exit. he gets off the exit and sits at stop light for a minute then pulls into the gas station actross from the exit. when he took the off ramp he says the temp was nourmal but as he pulls into the station he notices it is in the red.

I arrive and the water bottle is empty and notice oil under the car and on the a arm as well as coolant. I have the car towed to my house then to a shop (not familiar with 850s. When I start up in front of my house to move it for tow truck it runs fine. Move it twice for them. At the shop he puts water in the water bottle (i had already added 2 quarts of oil to fill it). and starts the car the car runs ruough with smoke out of tail pipe. He pulls the timming belt cover and water is leaking quickly from water pump seal. he later says cam seals are where oil is comming from.

replaces seals water pump and tbelt. starts car says still running very rough with smoke out of tail pipe. My son says before this happened the car was running funny with some sort of noise. Ill try to clarify his with him.

Oh the mechanic said before he did the work one plug was slightly fouled but didnt appear to have coolant on it.

So the pcv system has never been changed so might be clogged. Did clean the tubes once. And I dont think my son changed the oil in a while. So if the pcv sytem got clogged could it have affected the turbo clogged some more lines causeing the smokeing?

I dont think he as done a compreesion check or seen if their is oil in the water etc.

I had the head rebuilt about 18 months ago when my son blu a hose and kept driving for about 3 miles on city streets.

Im hoping its not another head gasket. the mechanic says its missing when it starts. when i strarted in front of my house it ran good for 1 minute or so 2 times. How can I confirm or elimate the head gasket?


Thank you