Hey y’all, long time reader, first time login. I have a 09 accent that recently had an issue starting (cranks but no start). Scanned the vehicle and got misfire cylinder 2. Took out the plugs and sparks, found from 1-3 coolant on sparkies. Cylinder 4 was bone dry. I have ask about in real life what the issue may be and assumed the lesser of three evils being a cylinder head gasket failure (I had been told either this or a piston ring failure or even a cracked block). I’ve got the valve cover off and at TDC. I’ve just taken time to do everything right. I will post my concerns on my endeavors to see what truths are below the cams and valves.

cheers!

 

If you haven't taken it apart yet,
Might be a good idea to do a cooling system pressure test and see just what is happening.
You could pump it up to no more than 15 lbs and se what the pressure does.
The coolant on the spark plugs is a concern .
Has this engine ever been overheated?

 

The engine has overheated only once before the current issue. The diagnosis was a big gapping hole that developed on the plastic part of the radiator (it was out of sight, so it was swapped). I fell the pressure now that I may have not gotten 100% of the air out of the cooling system after install.

 

A good part of the time with today's engines an overheat condition can cause burned valves and warped heads.
This sometimes takes some time to show up , but is pretty common.
Not knowing the condition of the rest of the engine, a rebuilt head assy may be in your future.

 

Thank you for the perspective mate! This weekend should give me time to go the distance on these issues. Appreciated!

 

Haven’t gotten to cleaning the surfaces yet. But we made it gents! Inspected for cracks and none so far before cleaning.

 

While the head is off, that is a good time to have the head checked with a decent straight edge to verify it is not warped.

 

Yes, the only straight edge I have is a t square for drywall and it’s loooong. I will have to get one for this application and a gap gauge too. I also found some weird pattern of water marks inside the engine bay and on the inside of bonnet. It lines up with the weeping hole in the water pump and some belts to disperse the leakage. Assumably so I will have to look at a replacement for that too while we are at it. Anything else since we are at the bottom?

 

It looks like you are going to replace the water pump. Consider replacing the thermostat , hoses and belt also ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,unless you did them with the radiator.

By this time I would be more than reasonably sure you had enough of this job and don't want to be doing any of it over again just because you figured it looks OK.

Let us know how you make out, thanks.

A smart move would be to have a qualified shop check the straightness of the head and they can also run a pressure test on the passages of the head to make sure there no unseen cracks. It is worth every bit to do all this to avoid doing any of it over.

Arent you glad you asked, just kidding, been there .