1998 ford contour.runs very ruff.2.0?

Question

150,000 km.cleaned out the engine and put in fresh oil.new ford plugs,seem to not be getting firing in #1 & #2 cylinders but there is good spark.when the engine is running and i remove the oil fill cap i get air puffing out which means that i am getting air from the cylinder under compression into the crankcase.i suspect that compression rings may be gone in those 2 cylinders,but i dont know.could there be any other causes,like a blown head gasket,or bad valves.there is no oil burn or smoke out of the exhaust pipe.

Answer 1

Well, running rough could depend on a number of things. At that mileage you should not blow the head gasket nor should any of the other things that you describe be bad unless you are running it hard or have a whole bunch of aftermarket components on it.

First, go all the way with ignition just in case and change the wires and possibly the rotor.

Your next suspect would be the fuel system, and there are a few things to do with that. First, go to the local auto parts store and pick up a good bottle of fuel injector cleaner, it does the same job that the mechanic would do. Then I would have the fuel filter replaced.

If you do all that and it still doesn't work, then mabye the culprit is something like a clogged air filter, or leaky egr valve.

If, after all that, it still runs pretty rough, take it into a ford dealer and have them check it out, for a small price, you may find a simple solution.