We'll I have been taking the lazy route lately and use the Prestone premixed 50/50 coolant. I am not sure if they use DI water to premix or not. You bring up a good point. I should check into that if I continue to use the 50/50 premixed coolants in the future. Does anyone here know?

Anyway I lay defeated and now have the car in the hands of my friends garage. No matter what, head gasket or not, cylinder 1 has around 100 compression. That's a problem. The rough idling, very occassional white smoke, and mild over heating issue all started on the same day. The idle gets better, but still rough, as the engine warms up. The car has never been driven like a race car. Is it normal for one pistons rings to be worn at 127000, while the other pistons hold up nice compression. I am just wondering if i could have a piston or ring problem on cylinder number 1. Or when you have bad compression on just one cylinder does that mean that more times than not it is the headgasket? I guess I will know something in the next couple days. Thanks.

 

hmmm interesting, my 98 had low comp on num 2 and 3 cyl, a code 43 popped up i thought it was the head gasket , tore it apart, found out it wasnt the head gasket, uzzled me to where the oil was going and how was it getting on my spark plugs? i bought a rebuild kit for the head, took it apart(valve retainers are a pain to deal with) and come to find out after getting a lil pissed (and drunk) that the valve gasket grommet thingy dohicky ( cant remember the name of'em) were dead, how rude. brokeout the dremel, collected parts, if you ever change you timing belt make sure that the tensioner works, if not , there a prety penny.i paid more for that then my underdrive pully, but any way thats was my prob on mine, i like the ohc on mine, after all that it was WELL worth it,

 

Didn't someone tell you to change the spark plugs? Oh yeah, that was me. If you had done that, you would have seen the oil on the plugs, then known you would need to change your spark plug tube seals.

 

nope, did a complete rebuild of the head everything works great now

 

You should think about piston ring blow by. Is there any oil on your piugs when you pull them?. Any massive carbon deposit's on the plug? If you find that your piston ring has gone for a dirt nap and you need to ressurect a new one.