but even if you find a used head, you'd want to get it pressure tested and resurfaced. and either way the heads coming off, so all the same parts still apply, just no valve replacement. which doesn't cost much in itself.
up to you, of course. i just hate seeing perfectly usable parts go to waste. i think we should be conscientious of that as well.
anyways, good luck in the endeavor. maybe keep us posted if anything interesting happens

 

ok ya thanks for the help i did find a head on craigslist for only 30 bucks im gona go check it out.

 

sorry guys you are all wrong. The blinking cell means something is wrong obviously, and that your melting your catilictic coverter. the secondary o2 sensor the sensor after the cat is not liking the mixture. so really it could be a wide variety of things could be the cause of this but now you have to figure out why its blinking , thats what it means. just had to let ya know. After reading all the post and what he said about only having 50 psi on one of the cylinders it makes sense if its not sealing and for instance if you have a burnt exhaust valve all the raw Hc or gasoline would be dumped passed the valve and right in contact with the cat causing the blinking light. I highly recommend doing a cylinder leak down test to see how much your losing in each cylinder. also this will give you a clue to where your leak is. good luck

 

^^actually, lazlong was correct to an extent, and i as well.
blinking cel is indicative of what's called a type A misfire-high priority. this is catalyst damaging and will illuminate the cel in one trip (as apposed to type B, which takes 2 consecutive trips). the ecm compares the number of misfires in that cylinder with the number of combustion events using a misfire counter. this is how the ecm determines a type A misfire and illuminates the cel. so it is capable of determining severity.
HOWEVER, the cel will only flash when similar conditions to the code setting criteria are met. otherwise, it will only remain solid.
so, my apologies for the misinformation. but that is the correct operation 100%

 

Got it. Thanks for not jumping my azz like you could have.

 

never my intention.
i'm actually just finishing up my 3rd year AST. pretty much all engine management, and the final segment is obdII conception and theory of operation.
pretty fascinating **** how it all works. what's even cooler is that it's all standardized. you can go from a honda to a ford to a vw and it all operates exactly the same. the thresholds are manufacturer specific, of course. but the operation is identical. and when you understand the operation, it makes identifying the problem that much easier

 

The reason I said it was a severe problem is a misfire could be anything from a plug wire having come off to the timing belt is shredding and skipped a tooth. A misfire isn't a common even on a modern FI car

 

no wonder it had low compression

 

yea, that'll do it. is that a hole in the exhaust valve as well? or just me?
how'd the piston crown and the rest of the cylinder look?

 

ya its a little piece of valve missing. everything looked normal on the piston/cylinder you couldnt tell any difference from the other ones. guess it got lucky anywase its back together and running great time to put some miles on it.

 

LOL

 

not the intake valve. that's clear. i meant that exhaust valve. at the edge of the pic. probably just a piece of debris or something

 

no the broken one is the exhaust side but ya that other one is just a peice of something.

 

i have seen blinking cel's end up being trans related also