It's Dead, Jim ('01 3.0i)

[nahvkolaj]

Originally Posted by Effduration

I re-skimmed this thread from beginning...it's a bit crazy

-Overheat and possible warped head. Car towed home
-Multiple coolant leaks, including from recently installed hard coolant pipes.
-Low compression on 2 cylinders magically goes away with a little oil.

Since the car has not been sitting long, and hasn't been driven in a cold climate, and hasn't had trouble starting (no mention of it) I doubt it is bore wash on cylinders 2 & 4 although its a remote possibility..

A head scratcher for sure, let's see if compression in #2 & #4 remains.

Yeah it’s been a roller coaster for sure. Thinking the engine is toast, it’s maybe not, the head’s probably toast, maybe it’s not…

It’s never been hard to start. Used to get a misfire every once in a while but new coils and plugs fixed that maybe 1,000 miles ago. Compression tests were done with the intake off so no cylinder washing would have happened. The car is sitting outside but the intake ports are plugged with paper towels and the little air swirler ports are plugged with vacuum caps.

The only thing I can think of is that flaky carbon buildup I saw got on the valves and borked the seal pretty bad. Best case is that’s the only issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the valves end up having more problems than just being dirty. I reeeeeeeally would like to get away with not pulling the head off this thing, but we’ll see.

I really appreciate all the support and suggestions so far, guys. Thank you!