# wont run after doing head gasket



## jimmy21 (Jul 2, 2008)

Just finished up doing a head gasket on a 94 3.4l v6 camaro. After we got it all back together and tried to start the car, it ran absolutely terrible. Shook really bad and didn't want to idle. We double, triple and quadruple checked the firing order and everything is in the right order. Started pulling spark plug boots off and when we pulled the #3 cylinders spark plug boot off it ran the same without that cylinder. We pulled that cylinders spark plug, put the boot on the spark plug and touched the electrode to ground and its getting spark. My buddy thinks its that cylinders injector. The exhaust is smoking some and smells like unburned fuel.

my questions are
1: Would it run as rough as it is with only 1 cylinder not firing? 
2: Any ideas of what i should try?


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## Mr Chips (Mar 23, 2008)

jimmy21 said:


> 2: Any ideas of what i should try?


If your exhaust smells like gas i would check MAF and O2 sensors


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## 47_47 (Sep 11, 2007)

Try swapping the plugs and then the injectors, see if the miss follows either. Make sure you lube the injector 'o' rings with engine oil when installing. If no change do a compression and a cylinder leak down test.


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## burnt03 (Sep 20, 2009)

Any chance the dist is 180deg off?


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## jimmy21 (Jul 2, 2008)

burnt03 said:


> Any chance the dist is 180deg off?


it doesn't have a distributor. It uses coil packs



today i pulled all the spark plugs out and half of them looked wet and fouled and so i replaced those and it ran a tiny bit better. It would at least idle, but still VERY rough. Any ideas what i should try?


Could bad injectors make it foul plugs? Don't bad injectors make it starve for fuel?


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## Mr Chips (Mar 23, 2008)

jimmy21 said:


> today i pulled all the spark plugs out and half of them looked wet and fouled and so i replaced those and it ran a tiny bit better. It would at least idle, but still VERY rough. Any ideas what i should try?
> 
> 
> Could bad injectors make it foul plugs? Don't bad injectors make it starve for fuel?


wet plug can be a sign of a coil not firing. leaking injectors could cause wet plugs i'd imagine


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

jimmy21 said:


> Don't bad injectors make it starve for fuel?


not if they are stuck open. Then they spray when they aren't supposed to.


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## jimmy21 (Jul 2, 2008)

nap said:


> not if they are stuck open. Then they spray when they aren't supposed to.



on half the cylinders?


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

I had a similar problem.... it was the coil pack.

DM


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

jimmy21 said:


> on half the cylinders?


it was merely an answer to the question asked. if it is applicable or not here, I made no commitment.

as DM stated, I would look to the coils.


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## jimmy21 (Jul 2, 2008)

i don't think its the coil pack because it was working before and we tested to see if they are sparking.

I've decided its probably fuel injectors crossed up. This would completely make sense and completely possible from when we put them on that we didn't get them right. We basicly made an educated guess on where they went. Problem is now i don't know where to find which injectors go where. I didn't find it in the haynes manual


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

jimmy21 said:


> i don't think its the coil pack because it was working before and we tested to see if they are sparking.
> 
> I've decided its probably fuel injectors crossed up. This would completely make sense and completely possible from when we put them on that we didn't get them right. We basicly made an educated guess on where they went. Problem is now i don't know where to find which injectors go where. I didn't find it in the haynes manual


what do you mean; you mixed them up. the injectors are the same. If you mean the wires that connect to them, that's different. 

are the wire colors going to all injectors the same?


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## jimmy21 (Jul 2, 2008)

i ended up finding cylinders marked on the injector wires and they were correct

I took it to an auto mechanic. He took 1 look at it and swore the plug wires were totally farked up. He switched 2 and it all of the sudden it would idle. He said 2 more are still crossed. Doesn't make sense to me, because we traced those wires out at least 5x. But if he can make it run smoothly, more power to him


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