WMcGregs

How's it going?

I have a 2001 XJ with 175k.
I'm getting a p0302 which is cylinder 2 misfire.

It has a rough idle and sometimes will stall out when idling, when I'm driving it runs great, no rough driving and perfect acceleration. I just changed out my plugs, gapped them out to .035. They are NGK coppers. I had champions before that (stores didn't have champions so i had to go NGK). I did a compression test and all my cylinders were 120-150 and cylinder 2 was at 30. I did a wet test and received the same results.

Would that be an indicator of the valves going bad?

If you guys could help me i'd really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much.

CCKen

#2 sounds like the red headed step child alright. Pull your valve cover and see how the valve springs look. Rotate #2 to top dead center compression stroke and wiggle the springs and eyeball them with a strong flashlght to see if they're broken. Time for a new valve cover gasket anyway. Felpro.

Do a compression loss check on #2. When you have about 90 psi in the cylinder and you hear air escaping in the intake manifold, the intake valve has taken a dump, same same if you hear air escaping in the exhaust manifold, exh valve dumped. If no air is heard escaping and the air pressure in the cylinder drops off when you isolate it in the cylinder, it may be a bad head gasket, allowing air to escape to an adjacent cylinder.

belvedere

Welcome to the forum.

I'd follow Ken's advice. I'm wondering, though, how your engine "runs great" with one dead cylinder. If it truly runs great, I'd double-check that compression reading.

WMcGregs

I'm going to check that when I get home from work. Thanks for the quick response I appreciate it.

WMcGregs

So I pulled the head. Head gasket was in alright shape but changing it anyway. I have a crack on my exhaust manifold all the way on the left side by cylinder 1 so idk if that caused the no compression in cylinder 2. I'll post pictures after work of it. And the valve on cylinder 2 is black and nasty so do you guys know what would cause that?

Thanks so much. Pics will follow.