Im Hamspiceds friend, i own a 87 firebird formula with a 350 TPI, after christmas this year snow got under the hood and onto the engine, it has been running like **** ever since, if i get it started it dies down right away, no idle, if i give it gas it backfires like crazy, the number 2 spark plug gets fouled like no other and reeks of gas, and under the head is a mushy rusted substance, could that be the head gasket??? any ideas?

i have put new parts on, including a new MAF, EGR, O2 sensor, spark plugs and plug wires, my own cold air intake, but that never gave me any problems.

(weekend projects arent)

 

Snow under the hood won't cause a blown head gasket.
More than likely your distibutor got water inside. Take the cap off and take a look. This will cause it to run very poorly.
Are you getting any trouble codes?

 

A blown head gasket can cause many ailments. Most namely being a lot of white smoke out of the tail pipe and horrible performance. Many blown head gaskets I have seen (Mustangs) would not be very noticable untill the engine heated up some. Then the idle was nasty, smoke and/or water out the exhaust, fouled plugs, all around bad news.

I agree that snow on your engine shouldn't blow a head gasket. Take off your distributor cap. Maybe time to change it and the rotor anyway.

Can you take a picture of that "rusty, mushed substance"?

 

It could be many things. Was the engine hot when the snow got onto it? Are you running enough antifreeze in your coolant (should read at -34*). If not then the block could have cracked along the side where the jackets run. I've seen it happen but the symptoms are much worse then you describe. Your intake sounds like its leaking. Backfiring (Backfiring is through the intake and Afterfire is through the exhaust) is sometimes an indication of an intake leak.

If you have a blown head gasket then one of these is likely to be present: white smoke out the exhuast, plugs will be cleaned from coolant entering combustion chamber, coolant in the oil, loss of coolant from rad (obviously), cylinder pressures on affected cylinders are almost nonexistant, and crappy performance. Most of these things are easy to check. check for missing coolant. Get a Cylinder Compression gauge set and check your cylinder pressure (not sure of your comp but will be above 150 most likely). Check the oil and make sure it doesn't look like a milk shake.

 

whats a blown head gasket do?

I'm guessing it smiles - a LOT...

You probably wouldn't get fuel fouling on that cylinder, and may overflow the cooling system or suck it dry. I'd check the other suggestions, then follow up with your findings.

BTW - You COULD register on your own username and account - it's free.

 

Hey Vader, its Ham. I had already logged into thirdgen, and he wanted to post something so we tried to find some way to logout and i couldnt find one;.... so we searched around to find a way to register a new user and we couldnt, so i just let him use my acct. trust me if its just a distributor cap i have a feeling hell be around a bit....

 

Ham,

If you go to the main Forum Index page (by clicking on the "Message Boards" link with the photo of the Camaro and Firebird), then scroll to the bottom of the Main Message Board index you'll see a link to Log Out.

You should also get the option to log out in any "Reply to Thread" screen, right next to your username.

 

Ok Vader, will do...


:::UPDATE:::

WE bought a new distributor cap and rotor(Which were ugly as hell BTW) and just changed them over. The car still runs, pops, tries to idle then stalls but with a little improvement. It only pops when you try to floor it. we are thinking that maybe we need to change the spark plug on cylinder 2 because that was the origional Cylinder that had the spark plugs that were all nasty and "Fouled". We came to this conclusion by touching the headers... All of the other headers were hot as hell, while the cylinder two header was just warm to the touch. That tells us (Who dont have much Mechanical Know-how) that, that cylinder is not fireing. Right now we are waiting for the headers to all cool down and we are probably gonna change the spark plug. Untill then do you guys have any other ideas??

 

... Or, you can click HERE...

 

As long as the wires are intact, and the injection on that cylinder is O.K. (and it probably is since the plug was fuel-fouled) the new plug should help immensely. A full set might be even better.