1997 neon, check engine light on, misfire #1 cyl.?

Question

I have a 1997 plymouth neon, idling rough, check engine light one, code is #1 misfire. Changed plugs and wires. no better. Did a compression check, #1 - #4 60,60,165,165. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Folks, pay attention. The compression numbers are listed #1-#4. #1 and #2 have only 60 pounds. The head gasket may be blown between the cylinders. Listen to one of the cylinders while checking the other and see if you can hear the compression leaking through. Listen at the oil filler to see if there is leakage into the oil pan. Some one makes an adapter that screws into a spark plug hole and you hook up air to it. With either piston at top dead center, turn on the air. If air comes out the other spark plug hole, the head gasket is blown. If it goes to the crankcase, the rings are worn out. If it comes out the intake or exhaust, you have bad valves.

Answer 2

You need more info- but fom the sound of things cylinders 1 and 4 have well below acceptable compression.
This could be due to any of a combination of the following:
- worn compression rings on the piston
-worn bore/bore liners for 1 & 2
-warped cylinder-head
-ill-fitting head-gasket
-incorrect torque on head-bolts
-unseated valves due to wear.
-damaged threads for sparkplugs/poorly seated plugs.

As the engine is coming up on its tenth year- I'd suggest that it has regular wear in the liners/bores as well as a slightly warped head, bad gasket and worn compression rings.
To fix it properly- you need a fairly major rebuild my friend- including reboring and honing the liners and maybe skim the head. Maybe the quickest, easiest solution is a low-miileage replacement engine from a wreck at the scrap yard- it might take a weekend of work- but you'll have an engine that you can fully check out & fix while it's conveniently outside of a car and your car will run like a fairly new model again- and wil save you major hours of f£$%ing about.
I learnt the hard way.

To do it on the cheap, here's what I did for a 1981 Mazda 323 that I kept away from the car cemetery for way too long:
Take off the cyclinder head.
Replace the head gasket with a new one or even better two.
Two head gaskets will lower the compression ratio but the advantage is that
- superior seal between head and block
- will forgive some of the head warpage
With the head off check the threads for the plugs as these may have been accidentally stripped or damaged and of course allow gas seepage and affect your compression.

-Remove the pistons and replace the compression and oil rings, give the inside of the bore a rub with some wet/drysandpaper lubed in oil to clean off the worst of the burrs and scratches. Clean up all the grit thoroughly.
You could also try swapping the pistons for high-compression types and/or give the head a skim of a couple thousands of an inch while the heads off and it will go like a rally car.
I later skimmed my head down to the lowest tolerance and then added two gaskets- not perfect- but a decent runner for a few more years!
Then I had enough cash and boought a cheap wrecked engine- swapped them over- ran well.

Answer 3

I agree with the others.... low compression on cylinders 1 and 2, I would get the adapter as whats his name suggested.... hopefully is it just a head gasket..... if it is the rings you would be better off selling the car and getting a different one.

Answer 4

60 is to low there should not be more the 5% differance between each cly bad rings need more info please \