My mechanic says that there ZERO compression in the #1 cylinder, which pretty much means I need a new engine.

How in the world can this car go from running like a dream to blowing out the cylinder? I never dogged it or anything like that!

 

Had you been losing coolant? If oil and coolant mixed together... That would definately mess your motor up. No compression at only 64k miles is bad.

 

There's a misfire in cylinder #1. My mechanic says he's never seen a clogged cat make the car misfire like that. Firestone said I need a new engine because it would cost almost as much to take the valve covers and cylinder head off just to determine the problem. So my mechanic friend ran a compression test on that cylinder and discovered ZERO pounds of compression in that cylinder and he's not sure what course of action to take. However, today I took it to a mechanic shop that I used to bring another car to and he said he's quite confident that that it's a valve issue as if a valve is stuck open or a spring or rocker is malfunctioning. He said he wouldn't condemn the engine just yet so I left the car with him and he'll look at it tomorrow. He sounded pretty optimistic that it's a valve train issue because of the fact that it happened so suddenly and without warning. I guess I"ll see....

And no. I hadn't been leaking anything! The car ran perfect one minute, misfired the next. Simple as that. No coolant loss at all. I had grown used to looking under hood because my last car was a Grand Am with CONSTANT coolant loss. And I check the oil at least once a week because my other car is a 1985 Oldsmobile full size station wagon. >=} It's reliable but it sure does burn alot of oil. Not a big issue with those small block 307's though.

 

After accepting that I might have to buy a new engine, I started calling around for prices. The second place I called was a shop I used to bring my car to and after asking for a price for an engine, the guy asked me what exactly was wrong. I described these symptoms to him and he immediately mentioned that it was probably a valve issue where a valve stuck open or a rocker arm has come loose. He was optimistic about not condemning this engine just yet, so I brought it to him and as soon as I pulled up, he walked up and told me to pop open the hood.

What happened next took TEN seconds. He said, "Oh, look! Have you noticed that someone has done some work on the intake manifolds? I'll bet you what happened was when whoever did this put the valve covers back on, they messed up on that bolt holding that rocker arm, and it's come loose and that's more than likely your problem. Why don't you leave it with me, I'll charge you an hour's worth of labor to check it out and we'll go from there."

Got the car back yesterday running as smooth as if nothing ever happened and that is EXACTLY what was wrong with the engine.

The bolt holding the rocker arm had backed out or something and the rocker was just loose in there, shutting one of the valves or something and the pushrod had fallen into the manifold. He spent an hour and a half fishing the rod out with a magnet, put everything back and everything is as right as rain. He cleared the codes because he was certain that the problem was also throwing all those other emissions codes and so far, no engine light has come one, so hopefully he was correct.

Third opinion; third time's a charm. This guy was apparently some kind of mechanical wizard and as it turns out.... his brother is the guy that I use to work on all my electronics: stereo equipment and amplifiers!

300 bucks it cost me instead of 3600.

I sure hope this helps others. As the 80 year old owner of that shop said, "Engines don't just die like that. It takes alot more to condemn an engine than going by a computer diagnostic."