Car stumbles really bad. MLS head gasket seal? Could be ignition? Not sure...

[Wizzy]

I've been working with a limping DSM for awhile now, beating my head against the wall. About a month ago, my head gasket blew, thermostat stuck closed. Grr. Went and had the head rebuilt because it twisted when it overheated. New valve seals, had the valve seats ground down, deck milled flat, pressure tested fine. So I bought a Mitsu MLS head gasket to install for the 22 psi boost I had on an Evo 16g with all of the supporting mods, somewhere close to 360hp to the wheels before it went south.

I installed everything, following the torque specs and head bolt pattern to the T. The car was running fine for a few days. I heat cycled it twice before driving it around town for the first time (no boost). Cruising on the freeway a day later, my tach went goofy and I lost power. One of my spark plug wires's ends came off. Replaced the wires, car started right up. Same thing happened again 2 miles down the road Put new spark plugs in. After running for a minute, I checked my plugs. Plugs 1 & 4 are clean where 2 & 3 have carbon, so I suspect coil pack 1 or power transistor/igniter. Both of my coils test identically, though my primary resistance was out of spec for both at 1.0 ohms. Secondary was fine 13k ohms. My power transistor tested inconsistenly for coilpack 1, sometimes I'd get continuity and sometimes I wouldn't. Continuity was consistent for coilpack 2 so I replaced the transistor but that didn't fix it. Could my coilpack be bad?

I also noticed a little bit of oil on spark plug 3 and 4 electrodes. I figured I needed to re-torque the new OEM head bolts (I didnt choose to use ARP) so I did. I then checked compression, I get #1 - 159, #2 - 178, #3 - 174, #4 - 168 dry. I didn't have time to put a cap of oil in each cylinder and re-test before coming to work today. The car is still stumbling pretty bad, and any time I push on the gas at idle, the car chokes and dies.

Any suggestions? Are the new valve seals not sealing properly, thus the oil in the cylinder? Is the head gasket not sealing? I'm not losing any coolant and not getting any smoke, so I have a hard time believing that it is the HG. I did not use copper spray because I've seen the eternal debate going on here and decided it's not necessary. Besides, it was running fine without copper spray for a few days before this happened. Please help!

Thanks,
Liz

 

[1g_tsi_awd]

To me, it sounds as though the valve seals aren't sealing properly. I doubt it is the rings or the HG, try the cap of oil and update us when you get home from work.

 

[Wizzy]

Taking a further look at things, cylinder 4's spark plug is covered in both oil and fuel. The coil pack was indeed not firing properly. I'm guessing that the oil in the cylinder may have been some minor blowby that wasn't getting evacuated when there was no spark?

Thanks for the help!