[lotto'97]

Hi, I have been trolling around these forums since last june and I would appreciate the help with my problem. BTW its a 97.

Ok, memorial day weekend on my way up north i blew my coolant bypass hose and overheated my engine. After fixing the hose and getting coolant back in the engine I threw a check engine light, drove it home and threw the codes at a local auto zone and got cylinder misfires in 2 , 5. It was also idling hard and a little low. But when running above 1500 rpms ran fine.

I took it to a local shop, he said he thinks it is a cracked head. But, after talking to a friend who is also a mechanic who had just gone through a cracked head of his own said that coolant should be mixing with my oil visa versa. But when inspecting the oil it was as clean as ever. So I proceeded to changing the spark plugs which led to changing the wires too.

This help for a hot one day. Although it idled a little better it was still a little rough. It got rid of the check engine light for that one/two days, but this Saturday i decided to wash it and it started up fine. After washing it the battery was dead. I am sure nothing was on. I jumped it and let it sit for about 15 minutes and then drove it for a short 20 feet before the CEL was back. After shutting it down I tried to start it back up. Nothing...So now I'm thinking an alternator / battery problem.

The hose that blew is right behind the distributor cap and there is also a plug. They both got extremely wet. Is there a chance that either one of them failed and is causing the problems? Could a short drain the battery?

[HMUSN]

it's a 97 and has a cel. run the codes again.

welcome to the forums

[BDaily]

Im thinking mabye coil pack? Perhaps just a guess though

[stephen]

You say it won't start. Have you tried charging up the battery.

As to the overheating, the coolant won't necessarily get into the oil. It depends where the crack or blown head gasket is. Sometimes the leakage is between the water jacket and combustion chamber. In that case it should use coolant and there may be exhaust gases in the coolant, but probably not coolant in the oil.

[lotto'97]

No, I haven't tried charging the battery, I'm gonna do that tomorrow and get it tested prolly.
The exhaust gases would make the coolant hose have a lot of pressure right?

[6banger96]

i had almost the same problem with the overheating and misfire codes on my 96. for me it turns out the valves on those cylinders where geting stuck once the engine warmed up. my mechanic sent the heads to a machine shoped and fixed them up and everything worked fine after that.

[moond0ggie]

"I took it to a local shop, he said he thinks it is a cracked head"

A compression check could help you diagnose the problem.

you can do a quick check called a "cylinder kill test".
With the engine idling, short to ground, one plug wire at a time & observe the drop
in idle speed.
A good working cylinder thats eliminated will drop RPMs significantly.
A weak cylinder won't drop much RPM when its plug wire is grounded.
Locating a weak cylinder may aid in troubleshooting.

[lotto'97]

ok I did the dead cylinder test and 2 is the culprit, but i really already knew that. For some odd reason when i went to jump the car it started up right away with no jump. So idk what happened there. Took it to throw the codes and now it is just cylinder 2.

cracked head?
valve seal?
head gasket?

[stephen]

Originally Posted by lotto'97 No, I haven't tried charging the battery, I'm gonna do that tomorrow and get it tested prolly. The exhaust gases would make the coolant hose have a lot of pressure right?

Yes if a lot of exhaust gases are going into the cooling system it would create pressure. You can have the coolant checked for exhaust gases.