For some reason, the first time i start my car, it starts sputtering like a damn lawn mower and starts misfiring really bad. If i turn the car off and on a couple times, it goes away and everything is fine. it has less than 3k miles on my brand new spark plugs/wires from Way.

a little off topic, but my cylinder 2 DID shoot out its plug a couple months ago, but i had it professionally drilled out and helicoiled. im pretty sure thats not the problem because the misfiring goes away, but who knows.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

it was just cylinder 2, i checked it and its tight. i didnt write down the code, but it just said misfire on cyl 2 and o2 sensor crap (i dont have a cat) Its really getting on my nerves...

 

actually had this happen, no answers here, but it happened when i used sea-foam and let the idle drop too low and got a misfire and eventually the ECU disabled the cylinder and tripped the DSC off. maybe some comfort in not being alone?

 

have you pulled the plugs and looked for any discoloration?
try pulling plug #2 and have a buddy start the car when it's acting up... does the spark look as strong as the other plugs? I know they're both new, but... try the old wire for plug #2?

you might also have a clogged injector that manages to spit itself "clean"...

 

i havent swapped plugs yet but i did swap wires, it does the same thing. my friend down the street has a jcw mini and were going to swap coils and see if that works, and he also has a spare set of injectors. hopefully that will help.

 

swapped coils, no luck
swapped injectors, no luck
pulled out the plugs, cyl 2 is dark, but shouldnt it be? its the one thats misfiring...

 

plug gaps? colder plugs should be about 0.038, and should be torqued to about 18ftlbs

at least if the plug is dark its getting fuel

 

talked to the mechanic for about an hour, the second i mentioned white smoke he said my head gasket was bad. makes sense, i have been having coolant problems the past couple weeks and maybe my bad cap/lack of coolant burned up my gasket or whatever it is that they do. When i start the car it has a big cloud of smoke which i thought was unburnt fuel, but he said it was my coolant, and the second time i start it theres no more coolant on the piston. the fact that it happened to cylinder 2 is coincidence.

God i hope he is right. i have a RMW cam coming in on monday, so the car was going to be apart anyway. Now it just means i get to pull the head off too.

 

if you're leaking coolant, you will get white smoke or a dark greenish tint on the plug (and the plug may spell of antifreeze)
if the plug wasn't firing (and fouled), it would be pitch black covered in carbon and smell like gasoline. may see black clouds of smoke when the piston clears out.
if you were burning oil, the plug would be a dark shade of blue and you'd get blue smoke out the exhaust.

sounds like you have a head gasket. hopefully it's just a bad gasket and you don't need the head milled to level any bumps.

 

so we pulled the head, replaced the gasket, drove around for a bit, and it started doing it again, pulled off the head AGAIN and saw the problem, the head near cylinder 2 is warped. going to get the head machined and i think we will be set =)

I was surprised how easy/fun this was haha

 

ok... lost now. freshly milled head, new gasket, new oil, new coolant, everything is perfect, until the water pump turns on... mother fking coolant is still getting into cylinder 2. wth could be causing this... the head bolts were torque, and 90 degreed to spec. im giving up and going to trade this trash in...

 

I take it you've done both a compression and leakdown test, what were the results?

Sounds to me like the head wasn't just warped but is also cracked, face it if something went so wrong as to warp the head it could have just as easily cracked it too. Sounds like the perfect excuse to go big valve.

 

Just got mine back from mini and it turned out to be the Valve Springs. I changed coils, plugs, wires, Ecu flash, injectors, cam shaft, and valves but never thought about the valve springs. My car only missfired when i floored it throungh the gears and when i reached 90 it then missfired. but check compression and check valve springs,

 

Cant believe you replaced a head gasket without machining the head in the first place, and no amount of machining will fix a badly warped head(not to mention a crack)... you must have over heated when you were having "coolant problems" for those couple weeks.

Who is doing the work on this? This is standard stuff, you shouldnt have to do double and tripple work to figure this stuff out... the whole situation sucks

 

I was doing the work and learning the hard way at the same time. the actual problem i was having was a hairline crack from where the TimeCert was placed. coolant was getting into through the spark plug threads and into cylinder 2. i did a jesus head swap and everything is fine now.

 

I'm glad it got worked out. How do you like the head?

 

havent gotten to use it much, my car is a nightmare from hell. I'm always chasing my tail. it had new pistons, race cam, head, 550cc injectors all from RMW put it and before i could get it tuned the starter went out. finally got the starter put in and the axle broke before i could make it to a dyno.