Am I running on 3 cyl. now?
 

Well I was accelling onto the freeway about an hour ago when all of a sudden I lost all my power... I was like ok... so I put it in 3rd and dropped the clutch and restarted the car and it seemed fine the rest of my trip but felt gutless. When I got off the freeway it became evident that something was wrong. Now it sounds like a stroker with a crazy cam or something, just like bum bum bum bum. It has yet to stall since I got home and I let it run for awhile and it didn't do anything wierd besides sound like a go kart and smell like gas. I recorded the sound with my phone and will post it up when I figure out how to convert .qcp to .mp3.


Any idea what this is? Do I just need spark plugs?

possibly could be a plug, test em and see, test to make sure that your coilpacks are workin and your gettin spark and go from there. Do a compression test to check the cylinders.

I'm no where near an expert on cars, so please bear with me. I'll buy spark plugs tomorrow and do that, and my friend has a compression tester so I'll head there after work.

I'm going to be completely honest and say I have no idea what a coil pack is. I assume it has something to do with ignition but thats where my knowledge stops.

I figured out how to convert .qcp

http://areli.org/putput.wav

umm, do a power balance test to see which if any cyclinder isnt igniting. run the car and unplug each injector until you find one with no change. im gonna bet on fuel injector(s)

Any idea what these rings are?

Cyl #1 and #3 have them slipped up so I cant get the plugs out. Looks like #1 (the smashed one) might be my problem?

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hehe, i notice that you still have your top timing chain guide on there, TAKE THAT OFF ASAP. anyways cylinder one plug definately looks stuck, have you tried taking it out with a spark plug socket? not sure what those rings are but seems like that is where the spark plugs threads on to. maybe previous owner or you didn't tighten the spark plugs in correctly and it messed it all up? have you tried a power balance test? a compression test wont be good if you can't take out all the spark plugs.

Well I'm not sure what you mean by cylinder plug one, but I am unable to get the plugs out of cyl 1 or cyl 3.

I compression tested it about 3 months ago and I tightened all the spark plugs down tightly and have been driving it since with no issues untill now.

It is the rubber end of your spark plug boot, get a hook tool and pull it out. you said that u smelled gas really bad? if so it could be one of your fuel injectors are bad. thats what it sounds like to me.

Well I uninsured the car and put it on the side of the house. Looking for a swapped s13 in socal if anyone has one. Also interested in any mkII GTIs.

lawls... yup, bosch spark plug wires are notorious for that... 2 of mine are like that too...


well to help you with your question... this is what i know about your situation.
First start off by pulling the rubber boots from around the spark plugs and ckeck them out one by one. look for any wierd coloration or damage. also, are you smelling gas from the exhaust or is it under the hood. If one of the cylinders is dead (i.e. isnt igniting, or is igniting but burning poorly) the excess gas will pass through the exhuast. I cleaned the motor on my 240 the other day and accidentally got some water in the front spark plug (cylinder 1) hole, so every once in a while, it wouldnt fire... sounded just like a gokart, and had very little power... and on top of that, yes it did smell like gas was leaking from the tailpipe.

An engine needs 3 basic things to run: Fuel, Fire, and compression. Your air/gas mixture is the fuel, spark is the fire, and compression is self explanatory.
Check the compression in each cylinder, once you determine if it IS getting compression, check to see if it is getting spark. Once you know it is getting both compression and spark, the only problem left would be fuel...pull out the injector on the dead cylinder and check it to see if it is firing or not... it may just be really dirsty, or leaking. There are other less common but equally serious problems out there, and this only scratches the surface. Good luck

Thanks for the advice guys. Sure enough my plug wires 1 and 3 are missing the bottom part. I bought new plugs and will go buy wires tomorrow. Hope this works, this 95 corolla is starting to piss me off.

You guys are awesome! New plugs, plug wires, and new valve cover gasket and its alive again.

Let it idle and held it at 3k rpms for awhile on and off for about half hour and there isn't a drop of oil leaking. I guess I put everything back together right :)

This was my first time with the valve cover and it was a bit scary but with your guys' help I pulled it off.

Lets see if I can't make it another 30k to 200k miles with it :)

lols... yeah taking the valve cover off for the first time can be kinda scary... especially when you thnk of the fact that the damn thing has like 11 bols holding it down vs most cars (especially small engined hondas) have only 2-4

dude !! that head looks discusting do u cahnge ur oil?? even done a motor flush?? man but man oh man