OK guys I am stumped... I have a 98 dodge neon r/t and yesterday I was driving and it just cut off. I got it towed to the shop and they told me the engine was blown... They said it was knocking because it was making a loud tapping noise... But the thing is it was making that noise for a couple of days... Today I took the valve cover off and checked the rocker arms.. All are snug except the cylinder 1 intakes, so I turn the engine over once and all are still snug except cylinder one intakes... Just before it cut off it threw a code that read random cylinder misfire cylinder one... SO is the engine blown or is it just a problem with cylinder one? and why wouldnt it run just on three cylinders? What could be the problem and how could I fix it?

 

What do you mean by "snug"? Are the intake valves not shutting all the way? Broken valve springs maybe?

 

By snug I mean that they are not able to be moved around. Cylinder one intakes rocker arms can be moved plus I am not get any compression in cylinder one, but I am in all the rest...

 

This may be way out there and I've never heard of it happening to a neon but a friend had it happen to a mitsu engine once; broken cam? By cyl#1 do you mean the cyl closest to the timing belt or the one closest to the trans? If your intake cam were to break between the 2 cyls closest to the tranny you'd have sloppy valves on the last cyl as well as no cam position signal and thus a non-running engine even on three cyls.

 

Could just be one of the cam bearings? Cap loose/cracked maybe?

 

I dont see any damage but I guess I have to take them out completly. Could it possibly be a bad valve lifter causing the valve to stay open?

 

I'm sure a bad lifter could cause the valve issue but I'd think it would still run(poorly of course, but nonetheless).

 

If there's slop in the cam followers, and you're not getting any compression on that cylinder, kinda sounds like what happens when the timing belt breaks and you bend valves. Might try getting cyl 1 on tdc and putting air preasure to the cylinder via the spark plug hole. Check to see if you're getting a breeze through the intake being as how those are the sloppy followers. Just my $.02 good luck with it...

 

^^^Dude, the post is almost a year old