Hey my girlfriend was about a mile away from her house and was merging onto the highway when her car died. At the scene i tried starting it. It would stumble but never completely turn over....
I replaced cap rotor plugs and wires. Spark is great. I checked fuel pressure at the filter and got 40psi. When I turn over now it seems as it wants to start but only on 1 or 2 cylinders. When i open the throttle i get a small backfire in the intake manifold when trying to start.
Also i can hear a small hissing sound when i first try and crank it over. Almost sounds like leaking compression or something from a cylinder??? WHAT THE HELL COULD THE PROBLEM be? I hate looking a fool when my girl cant get to work in the past 2 days.

 

also i forgot to say there has been a staeady coolant leak the past few months where i fill it up once a week or so. Maybe the car overheated? But i checked the plugs and no sign of too much heat

 

Do a compression and leak down test.

If you have fuel, spark, and air and it still wont start, you probably have a mechanical problem.

 

Thanks slowpoke im gonna go over and do a compression test now- ill let u know

 

lil rain delay here in the pa im gonna do the comp test tommorow. If the headgasket was done for and thats where the coolant has been going- it would still run right? Its wierd when i crank it sounds like i can hear the compression leaking out on one of the cylinders. It has the sound when you turn a motor over without any intake / exhaust manifolds on. But just on one. ...Hope the test shows something this has been the longest time finding out a prob with a car

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by XLR8 GS-R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">also i forgot to say there has been a staeady coolant leak the past few months where i fill it up once a week or so. Maybe the car overheated? But i checked the plugs and no sign of too much heat </TD></TR></TABLE>

Combined with the "hissing sound" I'd say you did a number on your head gasket.

 

water will not compress remember that

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by commotion &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">water will not compress as well as air remember that </TD></TR></TABLE>

Fixed that for you.

 

Finally did a compression test . but i have no leakdown vac gauge so i can only work w/ wat i got

4321

1=45psi
2=25psi
3=35psi
4=32psi
HAAHHA OMG

these are lowest numbers i have ever seen. I am going to start taking the head off today. That head gasket must have seriously nuked. I bet it was the BARRS that helped blow it... Alot of carbon deposits were shooting up out of the spark holes, but i think that was because of the gas flooding/cleaning that i have been cranking it over the past few days when i was working on it.

 

So what do yall think???

 

i think it's time to pull the head off.