Well, well, well, i should have known better, i guess i was retarded for actually thinking it would all end there. For those of you who were following my catastrophe with the cooling system, there is an update, although negative.

After a fantastic 423 miles on the van, driving, starting and cooling 100% perfect, my dad calls me to tell me that it stumbled at a stop sign, check egine light came on and then was fine coming home the rest of the way. Ok, i said, probably just a lil' hickup it had to clear out of its throat.

So another day or two passes, he calls me and says it got a little worse, this time misfiring while driving some, then clearing up. So after another day or two i decided it was time to drive it and bring it to the shop and investigate.

So i started it to let it warm up this morning, did perfect in the driveway then started on my way to work, maybe a mile or two and then it seemed to mis a little when accelerating merging into traffic. Then did good at the next light, then accelerating it missed pretty hard then cleared up and ran ok at coasting and stuff. So it definetly seems intermittant.

So just a few minutes ago i go out there and scan it, #3 misfire, fantastic. One of the techs here guesses a possible valve out of adjustment, meaning not closing all the way ect. and another guy says bad plug/wires, even though all tune up parts are brand new. So we pull the doghouse, wire looks good and connected ect. Then after a minute of running, i see a drip of coolant coming down along the valve cover on the passenger side slowly. Dear God! What in the world is happening?!

So im pissed, aggrivated and just want to watch the damn Sox game and get drunk, but instead i gotta play this game all over again in the damn driveway in the 35 degree weather.

Im hoping this is something stupid like a crushed plug or something dumb like that. Im gonna start by checking out the plug and wire, then in the next few days trying a hot leak down in that cylinder. Any other ideas guys? sound like anything imparticular?

Sorry for the venting. If anyone wants to see the history of this pile of crap, just search my name and check "Overheating Issue".

The first repsonses i got on this website before ended up being correct, so im coming here again for some help.

As always, thanks guys.

Dan

 

Check the coil pack for that cylinder if it is misfiring like that cause mine did that for a while then I replaced the coil pack an bam it was fine. Although it does sound like there is a coolant problem again so dont know what to tell you about that.

 

Sell it.

 

its cheaper and less of a headache

 

im not there to help, i did not do any of the work on the r+r so i can not say.

check out the plugs and give us the update and track down where the coolant came from.

 

 

now thats an idea

 

go ahead and switch out the plugs and wires, see what happens. Its really weird that you seen coolant, hopefully maybe its a drip from refilling it recently? Check your head gaskets and make sure everything is fastened... you know what your doing, just go through meaningful CHEAP stuff first, you know that.... as far as going in and figureing out about the vavles and what not, someone else is going to have to chime in for that one...

and the blowing up and selling idea need to be def. options

 

NOW we are talking. As bad as you guys think this was, it just got alot worse.

I decided to pull a few plugs this afternoon, and was very dissapointed in what i found. I have a semi-blurry pic of the plugs but i cannot post my pics on here as they are hosted on NLOC.net. Anyway heres the rundown: just to clarify, the cylinders are numbered in order, starting with #1 being front bank on passenger side towards front of van, and #5 being front on drivers side. Ok then, the #3 plug (which the code was set for) has oil on it, the electrode is dark brown/black and there is at least a drip worth of oil that came off it. NOT GOOD. . So then i pull the #4 plug right next to it, closest to the inside of van. That one is pretty dirty, has a semi-darkened electrode and not much liquid oil. Now off to the drivers side to pull the #8 and compare. That plug is perfect, right out of the box basically, same with #7. Now i shimmy to pull the #2 and that one is basically spotless like #7 and #8, with just a small sign of moisture from oil on the first 2-3 threads.

So here i sit, ready to drive this thing into the local muddy river, or light it on fire or punch my dad for not buying a new car. But, i need to look at this realistically, keep things straight in my head, diagnose this catastrophe and get back to work. This is where you guys come in, whats this sound like to you? Keep in mind of course this misfire is intermittant, and didnt happen at all last night on the way home from work, yet started after a tech looked at it in the parking lot at work, and some on the way to work. This is bizzarre as all hell, and im trying to figure if this is cylinder specific, or bank specific.

I know you guys are thinking why not junk this hunk of garbage, and i agree 100%, but unfortunetly i was confident in myself and some friends on fixing it, got the approval and money to do so by my dad, and now need to finish the job.

It runs sooo good too without this ****.

Thanks for reading guys...

Dan

BTW-i believe the coolant leak is from some small hose by the throttle body, so for now, lets leave that alone.

 

go get you some plugs and put in it. im thinking head gasket is prob. blown and now the plugs are fouled out? plugs are cheap so try it.