need help troubleshooting Options

[johnnybravo24]

My car is a 98 gt with 5sfe. Engine was running rough on an idle then check engine light started to blink. Drove to autozone for free obd 2 test and on the way there within 5 miles I saw sparks coming from under passenger side wheel well. Turned car off immeadiatly opened hood and exhaust manifold was glowing red.I towed the car home. A hole was burned in the precat where it meets the flex pipe at the flange. I replaced exhaust manifold and precat with a header off ebay;Which fits perfectly and has both 02 sensors. I started car again it ran fine for about 5 min. I reved it up to about 4k and check engine light began to blink again and had a rough idle again. Bought OBD 2 tester and I get a cylinder 1 misfire a p301 code. I removed wires and plugs and on cylinder 1 and 2 there was fluid present but I'm not 100% certain if it was gas or antifreeze. I then checked compression cylinder 1 is at 185 cylinder 2 is at 190 cylinder 3 is at 190 and cylinder 4 is at 210. From my understanding there is a min of 145 with a tolerance of 14 psi between cylinders. So I am not sure as to where to go from here. Is it a blown head gasket or a warped head? Could it be a cracked cylinder wall? Perhaps even a bad fuel injector? Maybe a bad cap and rotor or wires? I even have a notion it might be a bad O2 sensor. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated as I am kinda lost as to go from here. Thank you.

[Nemises]

Dont know what caused it. But start by your finding out if that was gas or Antifreeze in cylinder 1 and 2 and see where that leads you.

[celicamike]

Sounds like you're not getting a spark in cylinder 1 and maybe 2. Thats why its idling rough, you got the missfire code, and there was gas present when you removed the plugs (I don't think it was coolant because your compression was OK.) . The unignited fuel is making it into your exhaust and burning there, which is why your exhaust got fried. I would check your spark plugs and wires, maybe the distributor too.

This post has been edited by celicamike: Jan 7, 2007 - 12:14 PM