Rep Power: 0

Good day! I have Civic 2001, 165,000mi and it has cold engine random misfire. It will run rough for 5-7 sec and then run normal for the rest of the day. Random because it may start OK for a week and then for couple of days it will misfire at start. Car diagnostic scanner always shows P0301- Misfire in first cylinder. So far I replaced spark plugs, coils, cleaned and exchanged the places (1->2, 3->4, etc.) of injectors. I filled the coolant to MAX mark 1.5 month ago and now it is below MIN.
I read quite a lot that this is a problem with a blown head gasket. I read one of the Gearhead's posts about this. My question, can the blown head gasket can cause this random behavior of cylinder misfire? Anybody please advise. Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 518

Yes.
Antifreeze gets into the cylinder overnight, then gets the plug wet when you try to fire it up.
Wet plug can't fire.




3 ways I might check:
Make it misfire, shut it off before it clears up on its own. Pull the plug and taste it. If it tastes like coolant, then it should be a head gasket.
If it tastes like gas or oil, you have a different issue.

Get it all warmed up, shut it off. Pull the plugs out. Install a cooling system pressure tester, pump it to 15psi. Keep pumping it as the engine cools down to maintain 15psi. Leave it overnight with pressure on it.
In the morning, you crank it. Have someone watch it to see if liquid blows out of any of the sparkplug holes.

Leakdown test with shop air pressure applied to each cylinder. If the coolant level raises, it is a problem.


Finding anything in these checks does not necessarily mean it is a head gasket problem, but that is the most common cause of these problems on that engine.

HTH

 
Rep Power: 0

Thank you for your response. I will try it.

 
Rep Power: 253

Make it misfire, shut it off before it clears up on its own. Pull the plug and taste it. If it tastes like coolant, then it should be a head gasket.
If it tastes like gas or oil, you have a different issue.

What the...? Taste it? lol

 
Rep Power: 518

Let me know if you have a simpler, faster, and more accurate way of telling if the liquid really is antifreeze.


Spit, don't swallow.

 
Rep Power: 253

Hey I was just asking that all..you crack me up though.

I have tasted coolant before (not intentionally of course) doesnt taste that good. However older coolant taste worse then newer coolant.

I have yet to have the pleasure of tasting oil, maybe one day.

Method 2 sounds like a good idea.

Why not use a combustion tester?

 
Rep Power: 518

Because the complaint doesn't fit. Period. (Unless there is more that he hasn't observed and reported.)
It sounded like dead holes when it first fires up.

Why look for your dog in the neighbors front yard, if he is in your own back yard?



A combustion leakage detector is only useful for finding ONE out of maybe a dozen different ways a head gasket can fail.
And even that ONE way isn't reliable enough nor accurate enough for me.



Back in the olden days, all coolant was ungodly sweet (Glycerine = sugar?). Once you tasted it, you knew that taste for the rest of your life.
Old coolant, that nasty selling stuff (that this one old guy swears smells like wolf *****), probably lost some of its sweetness over time and picked up contaminants.
Mopar has a coolant that is "embittered", and has a horrible taste. Probably so pets and kids don't want to drink it. Makes it tougher to tell by taste what it is.