[jlbartush]

Long story short: car overheated cracked front head, warped rear head. Car is back together, has a misfire on cyl 1. I have fuel, spark,air. When i pull spark plug in cyl 1 it is soaked with fuel. What to do now? I'm at a lost with this car, ready to part ways with it. thx

 

[pawpaw]

Are you certain #1 plug is actually firing????
Are you cetain you have compression on #1 cyl???

If so, then maybe suspect a leaking fuel injector.

 

[jlbartush]

It has spark, I have pulled plug out and grounded it and seen the spark. I tried multiple plugs to make sure it wasn't just a faulty plug. I also have switched the injectors around and the plug is soaked each time. I'm wondering if the timing to some how off?? The car idles fine, I can hear the misfire in the exhaust, and the engine shutters. Before i took the rear head off to get planed, the car had power. Now it has no power?? what gives?

 

[pawpaw]

OK, good trouble shooting & feedabck.

So all that would suggest the spark is ok & swapping the injector around would suggest thats not the problem.

SO, have you checked #1 compression yet????

 

[jlbartush]

I have not checked the compression since the new head went back in. I need to do that. The weird thing is with the warped rear head the compression was fine on the back 3 cylinders, and it still had the misfire. Thats why i'm thinking the compression is fine.

 

[pawpaw]

Lots of things could go wrong during a rear head replacement/install & we do need air, fuel, compression & fire, to make er run & it seems something is amiss with #1.

What engine & ignition system do you have????

If the compression checks out ok, maybe something is amiss with the spark when all is in place. You know, electrical breakdown, bad connection, faulty wiring or connection under the insulation, thats sensitive to position.

Was the spark you observed on the grounded plug really blue hot & with plenty of snap, or was it sorta wimpy & yellow orange in color????

With everything in place, can you get an inductive type timing light on the high voltage secondary plug wire, to see if it's stong enough to trigger the timing light???

 

[jlbartush]

I have the vulcan motor with the 1 coil pack on the valve cover. The spark i observed was really blue. I have new plugs,wires, and coil, I even put my old motorcraft coil, wires back in to see if it was fautly wires or coil, and nothing changed. My buddy and i were gonna try a timing light today and check compression today, but i got called into work. That was my next move. Would a leaking lower intake gasket cause all these problems?? This problem was there before the head was even off, the only reason i took that head off was that there was oil in my coolant and coolant under the valve cover. Machine shop said it was warped bad.

 

[pawpaw]

OK, more good touble shooting on the spark question, so it would seem from all your swap out testing, that the coilpack, plug, or plug wires aren't likely in question & with the fuel injector swap out testing, the #1 fuel injector isn't likely the problem either.

SO, that sorta leaves you looking at the compression question!!!!!

Maybe Murpheys Law is messing with you on the before & after miss!!!!
I was thinking maybe if the valves & seats were reworked on the back head, perhaps a piece of trash got somewhere it shouldn't, or maybe the head gasket got bumped when setting that rear head down in place, or maybe you missed torquing a head bolt back there, ect????
Anyway the compression test will tattle, if any of that has happened & is causing a problem.

The lower intake manafold gasket won't affect cyl compression.

BTW, do you have a CEL lit???? If so, pull & post the code Number/s, as they could offer up good clues.

 

[jlbartush]

I had a CEL before i took the head off, The car is running so pour i can't drive it long enough to come on. The code it had before was a po301, and a misfire detected under 1k rpms. When we did the front head i didn't know the back one was messed up. So my buddy took it for a test drive after the front head was done and it threw a O2 code, rear bank was running lean? I think?? So he put a new O2 in and i drove it 35 miles by time i got home it was running like **** again. Is a clogged cat a possibility??

 

[pawpaw]

Well if the rear & front heads were ingesting coolant, because they were warped, it might have taken both the front & rear O2 sensors out, as all they need is a whiff of coolant, so they both likely need to have their switching speed checked, after you find & fix the #1 cyl problem.

A clogged cat won't cause just #1 cyl to have a misfire problem.
Not saying you couldn't have a clogged cat though, but a vacuum gauge has a test thats easy to do, that'll detect a restricted exhaust.
Are you suspecting that a cloged cat might have been the reason for the engine overheating & warped heads????

 

[jlbartush]

The overheating was caused by the degasser tank not holding pressure and spewed coolant out. The reason i'm wondering the cat might be clogged is the idle is perfect and the motor barely sputters, but the sound of the exhaust is a different story. It sputters bad and the car has no power.

 

[pawpaw]

Are you certain you got the engines #1 cyl on top dead center on it's compression stroke with the crankshaft timing mark, when you installed the cam sensor & are you certain you got the cam sensor aligned properly when installing it????

Here is a link on how to hook up & interpret a vacuum gauge. It is easy to hook up & can quickly help diagnos engine problems.
How to Use and Interpret a Vacuum Gauge

 

[jlbartush]

I'm checking the compression tonight along with the timing, I have not touched the cam sensor. The car is going to Ford tomorrow, my buddy is having a driveability technician look at it.

 

[pawpaw]

Will be interesting to hear what the compression check shows.

Are you certain you got the coilpack wires routed to the proper spark plug, they all snapped on tight & you used all of the factory wire looms in doing so????

 

[jlbartush]

I'm pretty sure the wires are going to the proper plug, they are using the correct wire looms also. The coil pack is 1/5,2/6,3/4 ?? 1,2,3 on back side and 5,6,4 on the front side??

 

[pawpaw]

The coilpack pairing you posted is correct.

The engine rear bank cyl layout you posted is correct, but the front cyl bank number loaction is in question.

You may have made a post typo, or the front bank cyls plug wires may be hooked up wrong.

Cyl location

Firewall
1-2-3
4-5-6
Radiator

 

[jlbartush]

The cylinder layout is: 1-2-3 then:4-5-6 left to right, My coil pack states 1-2-3 then: 5-6-4 left to right on coil pack.

 

[pawpaw]

Yes thats correct.

 

[jlbartush]

Thanks for all the help, I'm gonna be doing the compression check in a few hrs. I'll post what i find out. Thanks again

 

[pawpaw]

OK, sounds as though you likely have the plug wires routed & hooked up right.

Will be interesting to read the compression numbers.

Did they magniflux the heads for cracks, as it's not uncommon for the 3.0L heads to crack when overheated & were the valves & seats reworked when the heads were machined for flatness????