DaveT

I have not had a headgsket failure that caused coolant to be burned and cause detectable evidence in the exhaust. I have had an intake gasket fail and cause the smell & smoke.

Headgasket failures I have experienced: Cylinder/s to coolant - the most common. Anything from a very small slow little bubbles in the coolant recovery bottle, to pushing the coolant out fast enough to overheat in a handful of miles. Once it starts with the small leak, it grows until unusable. It may be a few days, weeks or months. These leaks invariably began after a mild overheat due to low coolant, usually caused by an intake gasket failure, coolant system hose failure, radiator leak, water pump seal failure. Checking coolant level 1 time per week is not frequent enough to catch many of the leaks that I have had cause failures. I check coolant in the morning. Both by looking at the level in the bottle, and by squeezing the upper hose. [Do I hear air, water, etc going through the jiggle pin?] Water jacket to exterior. A few times. Water jacket to oil sump. Once, with a bad overheat with very low coolant.

Not much to lose doing the split boot to get home. At least keeps the grease in there....

That's impressive. If the battery and clamps are all good. Are the meter probes on the posts of the battery, vs on the clamps? The wistle is likely from the very overloaded alternator. It takes a lot of current to push a good battery up to 18 volts.

A good fully charged LA battery should read 12.6 volts at rest. Rest means absolutely NO loads on it, and no charging for at least 12 to 24 hours. 12.4 with the engine running, and no alternator doesn't sound bad, but I have not measured the condition either.

I've replaced a clutch or 2. Always done it by removing the engine. Seems like a good idea to replace the rear main seal while all that is apart. New pressure plate and throw out bearing. Turn flywheel if needed.

The fuel pump is in back near the gas tank. It would stop air from going backwards toward the tank. First thing to check, is the pump running? Note, it will only run for a few seconds unless the engine is running.

It is normal for the oil pressure to be low at idle when hot. The leaks from the head gaskets, cam carrier,and cam seals are normal for the age and miles. Time for a reseal, but it's not a problem to keep driving, just a mess with the drips everywhere you park. It also slows rust under the car.

Try to find a schematic from the factory service manual for the car the engine came from. If I were doing a swap, I would have both FSM - for the car you're modding, and the engine doner. There may be a link to a pdf on the forum, etc.

Ct has had the property tax on cars for as long as I know. At least 40 years. I do enjoy that the bill for my old cars is very low. Buy anything new, and watch out!

Bad wires usually make rough rumning. Get a set of NGK wires. Last forever.

Steady stream of bubbles is the typical sign of failing head gasket. I have gotten away with driving for a while, but sooner or later it will get worse.

The regulator in an alternator sets the output voltage to a normal charge voltage, could be around 13.8 to 14 V some maybe a few tenths more. A battery with a shorted or discharged cell will try to pull that voltage down, if it's internal resistance is low enough. The alternator will try to deliver all the current it can, but the voltage won't go over the setpoint because of that. A battery with an open cell could cause trouble for the alternator, as it may not have enough load on it to regulate properly. But in the case of the op, a battery with an open cell can't start an engine.

Does sound like lack of fuel. Maybe injector not working correctly. Big hint is the running on carb cleaner. Get a t and a fuel pressure gauge. I got one years ago. Combo vacuum test and fuel pressure. Very handy thing to have.

Dead alternator won't stop a car from running, or starting. As long as the battery is good, and has charge, the engine will run off the battery. Those lights glowing dimly can be an indication of low alternator output, so you may have an alternator problem also.

the spring is a small flat metal colored piece.

EJs are not my specialty... Check the wiring, for sure. Make sure you have a good clean ground between the engine and battery. And the brackets, etc on the alternator. Might be good to take it to one of the stores that will test it for free. The regulator is either being tricked by a bad / wrong connection, or blown out and failed in "full on" mode. I am assuming the battery and its connections are good, because it cranks, but check those too, if they are unknown.

"when the alternator is plugged in and the car is running the voltage gauge is well above 18 volts" This is bad. Fix this first.

The spring is a separate piece, and sometimes they rust and break. Yes, if someone applies mild pull on the door, and someone else trips the release handle, it should open easily. The release lever pulls a cable that slides a pin out of the way of a tab on the door. The spring [which sounds like what broke off] pops the door open.

The thing that fell off was a spring that made the door pop open a little when you lift the release lever by the driver's door. If you find some way to put a slight pull on the door, it should pop open when the lever is lifted. A second person is the simplest, If one is available. Then rig something to replace the spring. I don't know if the Oem part is available.

I have always pulled the cluster.

The part that the axel goes through at the wheel is a trailing arm.

And to avoid possible future confusion, I'll add that if you do have a SPFI, the ECU error for those solenoids is only checking that the coil is there. It has no way to know if the EGR valve itself is even connected.

Kind of what I am thinking, just need to confirm.

Looking for a rough idea of a value for this car. It has a little over 200,000 miles. New timing belt and idlers. Rust around driver side rear wheel, and rocker panel area where the jack point is. Can't jack it by it anymore bad. Front bumper has some scuff marks from a minor bump.