****** s14 sr20det spark plug tip broke =/ blown metal headgasket*******

[hungryjoseph]

i never made a thread going at this directly but i feel the need to... i made one about it misfiring... but i feel this is different level now.

background info: s14 sr20det out of a 1998 silvia. 56k miles on motor. 136k on car. just bought the car like this. i didn't swap it myself. i didn't do anything to it, besides add some coolant and change the oil.

i have a blown apexi metal headgasket. I have white smoke coming out my exhaust. Coolant is leaking/burning. the smoke smells like gas (running rich). the tip of the spark plug in cylander number one broke off (little L shaped thing). theres no compression in that cylander, but the other 3 are fine. I'm not sure if i really have a bad HG or not. the shop told me i did, but aren't there other reasons for bad compression in a cylander? piston rings? i have no idea. i drove it 100 miles like this (dont flame me for that, PLEASE).

has anyone had a simaler problem?

has anyone had their plug tip fall off? did you see any cylander damamge?

how can you blow a metal headgasket? (please, no smartass comments...)

i plan on getting an oem headgasket, new plug + coilpack, and getting tests down at midatlantic to see if the cylander is good or not. if it is, i'll be happy. if not, motor swap.

[ILikeMy240sx]

broken electrode usually means you detonated quite a bit on that cylinder. This could result in blown HG, blown ring lands, etc etc.

If I were you, I would HOPE its the metal headgasket and not the ring lands that are toast. And yes, metal HG can blow with enough detonation.

I would investigate as to why you were detonating.

[hungryjoseph]

could a bad coilpack cause this?

[hungryjoseph]

bump....