Running on 3 cylinders, help!

[walkinginperu]

Head gasket?!? ...water in number three cylinder.

Could be, but no sign of mayo under the rocker cover, had 120psi on all four cylinders and isn't using any oil or water. Don't know how else I would diagnose it, and don't really want to crack the head bolts if idon't have to. Any other way i can tell if it's definitely h/g?

as I said... water... when you remove number three spark after running (on idel, when you think its only on three cylinders), is it wet... is it wet with fuel (should be) or water (shouldn't be!).

Thanks again for the suggestions and help guys. Checked the plug, Jay, it's wet after idling and misfiring a bit, but fuel not coolant so I think head gasket is OK.
Not sure if garage did wet and dry compression test, so will ring them next week and see what they say.

Needed to change the cam belt anyway, so took the rocker cover off to remove the cam and give the tappets an overhaul. Discovered this:


Looks like I'm missing a bearing cap! Unless I'm missing something and the EW engine only had four, one has at some point disappeared. The missing cap is on number 3 cylinder, the one that's misfiring, but i don't know if that's significant. The remaining caps are labled 1,2,3, and 5. Looks like the head has been machined where the cap used to sit, as i think you can just about see from the photos, so i don't think i can even replace it. Could this be the cause of my troubles? It's been running fine for 2 years with it like this

[Risocco]

No mate its all good, its supposed to be missing. Panic over

Alex

[walkinginperu]

No mate its all good, its supposed to be missing. Panic over

Alex

Phew! Good times! Still only running on 3 though. Hopefully refurbishing all the tappets will have sorted it.

[Nate]

how you getting on with this?

[Risocco]

Yeah come on Ben! Any joy yet dude?

Alex

[walkinginperu]

Refurbed all the tappets, still no difference. Been on a course all week so had no time to look at it, but i'll let you all know after the weekend!

[Jay4424]

I had something very similar years ago - after many weeks of trying everything an old friend said - change the oil pump

I did and it cured it

Andy

have you tried this yet?!?

[walkinginperu]

Not tried changing the oil pump yet, trying to diagnose the problem before i spend any more money!

[james butler]

i had this problem with number one plug in aug last year. turned out it was head gasket leaking water into the cylinder. there was no mayo under the oil cap and no smoke comming out of the exhaust which was really odd. the only thing that proves it was the head gasket for me was, it started losing water maybe half the expansion tank over 4 days and the engine ate no 1 plugs insulation and electrode( this is because water in a cylinder does not compress and instead causes an increase in compression which is damaging to the engine) + wen i pulled no 1 plug lead off the engine ran the same but wen i took the plug out and rested it on the block it sparked fine. if you take the plugs out and look at no 3 plug does it match in colour to all the others? plugs can give u a good indication of wats going on inside.