Fixin Up The 1.8

[Alpine TSi]

One of my employees just picked up a 93 Talon DL for a beater. It has that sweet 4g37 in it. Already we have noticed that the power steering belt, serpentine belt, plugs and plug wires need to be replaced. While we are down there we are going to change the oil too. The car has 180k on it and the motor sounds great for having the miles it does. Now a couple of things have me concerned, the check engine light is on and I don't see that connector next to the fuse box that my datalogger would fit into. How do I check the code that is being thrown by the CEL? Also on the block below the valve cover oil is all over, there is also some around the bolts that hold the cover on. I am assuming that this is just the valve cover gasket, agree? disagree? I hope to find any other leaks as after sitting in the shop for five minutes there was already 6 dime sized spots on the floor. The last issue I noticed about it is that the two fans are now being triggered by a toggle switch in the dash instead of the various temp sensors. It also looks like the sensor on the bottom of the radiator to the passenger side of the lower radiator hose is either broken or something, the harness is not even plugged in.

Hopefully we can get this shitbox in decent shape so he has something reliable(although DSM) to drive...

Thanks in advance.

[Matt D.]

Pull off the valve cover, replace the gasket and clean up the oil as best as possible on the rest of the head and engine. If no more visible oil leaks from just below the valve cover but you still see spots on the ground you obviously have an oil leak somewhere else.

The diagnostic port should be somewhere under the dash on the driver side... Look around, sometimes they're hidden a little.