Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Misfire questions

Just like the title says.

I know that my car has a misfire. Cylinder 2 is at half compression, and the CEL code gave me the "misfire in cylinder 2" reading.

Mechanic told me that it's most likely a burned exhaust valve, meaning about $1,000 to fix it. Well, the hell with that. I'm wondering if running some Berryman's through the intakes via the vacuum method would help at all. I wouldn't be surprised if the valves were covered in carbon residue and were stuck partially open.

Also, as you know, a blinking CEL means a misfire. On the way back from home yesterday, I was cruising at about 80 mph, and the CEL was on consistently - no blinking. Then I hit the brakes, CEL starts flashing again. Then when I hold the speed steady for about five minutes, the flashing goes away. Any ideas on what would cause this?

I know I have other codes, just don't have the cash to deal with them right now.

It won't hurt to try, but it isn't likely that you will resolve it that easy.

When I worked as a dealership tune up technician, there was only one time in about a 15 year span that I was so lucky. I found a miss in a then nearly new Lincoln Mark III. I took a compression reading on the offending cylinder and it was near zero. I added some oil (atf) to the cylinder to get a wet compression reading to help determine if it was valves or rings/cylinder/piston. The compression came up, even better than I would have expected from a ring problem. I reinstalled the spark plug and started the engine and the miss was gone. Something must have been on the valve seat that the oil washed off. On talking to the customer, they brought it in within 15 minutes of when it started to act up.

Don't count on being so lucky.

If you don't fix that valve, it could break. You won't know how bad it is until you take the head off. It might just be a lifter or broken spring.
Take the valve cover off and closely inspect the offending valve.