misfire, popping and smoke out of exhaust, loss of power

[Predator Bird]

i did a search and had trouble finding threads, so i made a new one w/ a title that will show on the search option. anyway...

incase you didn't read my other thread, i was having a misfire w/ my car and there was a spark between two wires on one of the coils.

i took it to a shop and they changed out the plugs and wires b/c two of the wires were burnt through. all the coils tested fine, but they took a new one and moved it to each different one to see if any were bad. the spark is gone, but the car still runs like crap.

no codes are coming up w/ they scan it. when the car is at idle the exhaust is popping and smoke is coming out. when i drove it home it is stumbling and has a loss of power. they said they can't diagnose the problem and i need to go to the dealer that has a better scanner.

any other ideas besides these common problems it could be?

[BobbyZ72]

is the smoke white? does it have a stronge gas smell?

[Predator Bird]

^^^^^ yes

[turban]

blown head gasket?

[Predator Bird]

i have a question about the plug wire order. i want to make sure they are put on correctly. here is my crappy diagram.

the coils read:
4 3 5
1 6 2

looking at the headers from front of car:
passenger / driver
5 6
3 4
1 2

*edit: its not posting on the board like i typed it up. i'm sure you guys know how to read it, but on the coils the bottom number should be to the left of the top number too. this is on a 3.4L engine.

[ January 21, 2006, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: Predator Bird ]

[Predator Bird]

i think i know whats wrong w/ the car. i drove to target today to buy something and there is a major leak in my driver side header where it connects to the y-pipe. it was dark out so i don't know if the bolts came all the way out so tomorrow i gotta pull it up on the ramps and tighten it down. i didn't realize this was wrong yesterday b/c i only drove it one mile home from the shop.

would a leak in the headers cause this problem? driving the car today it felt fine other than the leak. i'm really hoping this is the problem b/c its an easy fix.

[Tyler]

even a tiny exhaust leak near the heads will cause a great loss of power... and popping.

[Predator Bird]

header leak isn't the problem. fixed the leak and the car still has a miss in it.

[BobbyZ72]

One of my injectors got stuck open and was causing this same problem, it was flooding one of the cylenders with gas causing lots of white smoke, strong gas smell, and gas dripping out of tail pipe. Car ran very very bad, and was almost not able to even move its self.

[Predator Bird]

figured out the problem. the wires were in the wrong order and one of the spark plugs was cracked when installed. needless to say the shop is paying me back for what the dealer charged me to fix their problem.

[BobbyZ72]

cool