so lets say...
 

at idle, you take the oil filler cap off a 95 hyundai accent 1.5L, and you can literally hear and feel air coming out of the valve cover...:lol:

also, nice metallic pinging sound, not all the time, but definitely there, and you can feel it when you have your hand resting on the intake manifold.

whats your bet on what let go?

my guess is blow by on the pistons

blowby wouldnt make this noise :lol:

Shot springs?

Cant air just comming out of the car be casued by a faulty PCV system

oh i forgot to mention...the reason we found this out is because he brought it over to check the CEL codes, found a MAF code...MAF sensor wasnt even plugged in (for at least a few months hes been driving it this way)...

im thinking something got pinged to death. you can hear it more from the rear end of the motor away from the exhaust/valve cover so i dont think its a spring/springs, though thats possible

this has a 3/8" vac hose going right from the valve cover to the intake manifold....and its quite a strong push you feel coming out of it. it was too dark out to look for the PCV at the time but...i'd say it was more air than the PCV could ever move

With the MAF unplugged the car would just run in safe mode and run on the rich side.
How many miles are on the car?

i think 198,xxx....its up there

its been running pretty piss poor...and worse now (i havent been in it in a while)

seems like 3 cylinders

My guess would be something top end.

get a new one

its my car hes talking about actually

car has 192k miles on it and counting. took the car out today for a minute and seems to be running a lot better then it has in a while, although now i have a really loud belt squeek that comes and goes as i drive, which hasnt happened in about a year after i replaced a belt.

it was also decent going to school last night.

ill just have to take er easy.

what about a weak lifter that would cover the pinging does it smoke at all could be the valves hmmm dont know i dont know them motors lol

Overhead cam or pushrod?

overhead cam, 12 valve i think it says on the valve cover actually