It appears that the first cylinder is not firing!!!

[Paultercel]

Hey guys!

If there is blue smoke on the start up...
is it possible that one of the cylinders is not firing?

The tercel has NEW plugs wires and dizzy but when I pull (*one at a time) each plug I can hear a difference in the sound of the motor. I can tell each cylinder, when pulled that, THAT, cylinder is not firing.

But when i pull the cylinder number one, I get no difference in sound. but the engine seems to be running fine.

Maybe the spark plug is defective?

A new distributer should ensure that the electric current is running to all four cylinders.

Anyone have any Ideas out there?

Note*

Each cylinder is firing. EXCEPT number one.

Thanks!

PaulTercel

[Gottolovem]

You say that it seems to run fine. On a under powered 4 cylinder car the loss of a cylinder is a noticeable difference.

Pull the plug and turn over the engine is the plug sparking? (could be a bad plug)
Pull the wire off the plug is there an arc?
Trade #1 wire with #2 wire do your results change?(could be a bad wire)
Or a compression check?

[Paultercel]

Compression test is good.

There is an arch there too so thats good.

I traded the plugs on number one and two and noticed a difference so wires are good.
I am thinking it is a bad plug...

[Paultercel]

I know that a valve job is probably needed because of the blue smoke.....

But.....could there be blue smoke if the spark plug is shit and not firing?
Could that cause blue smoke?

[Petros]

what brand of spark plugs?

I have had good luck with NGK, they last forever, never hand one break down or fail internally. Many popular brands I have tried created a miss after a few months, even though they look good on the outside, they were internally shorted. Now I just stay with NGK and had no issues.

If you have spark and good compression, likely cause is bad spark plug or wire. you could also have a vacuum leak on that end of the intake manifold making the mixture extra lean over on the intake manifold, Ihad this happen as well. I thought I had a bad head gasket, number 3 and 4 showed no power when I pulled the plug wires, did a compression test and they were good. found the brake booster line was disconnected at the brake booster, that only pulls vac from the rear part of the manifold, so it only affected the rear two cylinders. that was an easy fix, good thing I did not pull the head!

good luck

[Paultercel]

Is the brake booster line called the brake booster line in the book?

I have to put in new fuel lines, E-Brake and when I start going through it all I am going to need to test all this stuff out.

[rer233]

Check the aap diaph-if ruptured, it will dump raw fuel into #1 intake port, causing a miss@ idle but the car will run ok at speed. Good Luck!

[dlb]

a non-firing cylinder would not cause blue smoke. blue smoke indicates the burning of oil, and for that to happen, oil needs to sneak into the cylinder somehow. if you have good compression across all 4 cylinders than it is likely due to carbon'd up oil scraper rings or worn valve guide seals. it's more likely the latter if it's primarily on start up. you might try adding seafoam to the oil just in case it is the rings though. it's a cheap, easy, and very effective way to rule out carbon'd up rings.

i agree with gottolovem. i don't understand how the engine can be running fine if one cylinder is dead. if it's not firing, the car should feel like it's running at half power--really slow, weak acceleration, basically undriveable at highway speeds. are you experiencing that?

i like rer233's suggestion to check the AAP. another forum member had a similar problem recently and that would up to be the culprit.

[tercel4wdrules]

I had a problem with a cylinder not firing properly and it was mostly noticeably at lower rpms. It turned out that both the intake runner for that cylinder had a crack and the cylinder head also had a crack where that runner bolted up to it. Others here have reported cracked intake manifolds here as well. Sometimes the manifold bolts will work themselves loose and cause a vacuum leak, but running lean would not cause the blue smoke. Might be more than one issue here. Check the AAP as others have suggested as well.

[Paultercel]

Hey DLB,

The motor does fine on the highway. Gets up to 70 no problem and sounds fine on start up... Its when I start up and then pull plug #1 I get no difference in sound. Put it back in & Pull 2,3,4 each at a time and I can hear the difference....

I don't see any sign of a vaccuum, and wouldn't a crack in the cylinder cause a pretty significant loss in cylinder pressure?