Coolant in Cyl 2

Well folks, it was a great run. I bought a 2003 C2 convert for $16k. 3 years and 30k miles in (135K on the car now), I found white smoke from the passenger tailpipe. Was hoping that it was AOS but issue went away after 5 min. It also felt and smelled like coolant. Took it to a local shop in San Diego and they performed a pressure test and found it very low in cyl 2. They said they can see coolant in cyl 2. They detected a misfire in cyl 2 also. They don't want to waste more money and said to look for another engine. Was really hoping for a head problem and not a sleeve issue? Would scoring cause this? I'm getting quotes of $15k for a used engine installed (?!?) so that's not going to happen. Other than that it is a solid car. Anyone know of a good shop in San Diego that will do a borescope and find out if it's exactly in the head? If so could this be less than $5000?

First, sorry to read about this. Looks like a really nice car. Second, do not drive it anymore. Coolant in cylinder...not good. Probably a cracked head that can be replaced/fixed? for ~4K or less if not much else is wrong. Just a guess and depends on your engine/INDY/labor costs/other stuff needed.

I agree with Joe on both points. Get a second opinion, but have it towed there. My understanding is that the only likely candidate after the AOS is ruled out is the head. Definitely not (just) bore scoring if it is coolant as that is just scratches to the wall and not all the way through. I think a d-chunk could do it too, but you should be noticing bigger issues and that is also more common (relatively speaking) on the early cars. Good luck. Hopefully you can get some not quite as bad news.

Who would have guessed that a cracked head would turn out to be one of the less hugely expensive ways for an engine to crap out? There are several threads here where folks have had the heads repaired - hopefully the collateral damage (stuff gunked up with coolant, any damage to the piston/rod in that cylinder, etc. etc.) is nonexistent or minimal and you can get it welded up and move on with things.

Call vision Motorsports in OC for an engine quote. They have racks of them local. Good shops: Mirage, Black Forest come to mind.

Just as an FYI, I did drive the car 2 miles and limped back home. Here's the drive characteristics: 1. Coolant slowly drips into the cylinder so upon startup, car idles rough. 2. Once engine temp warms up, car drives fine. Coolant leak is slow enough that the combustion vaporizes the coolant out the tail pipe in 5 min. No more white smoke and car drive fine. I don't dare drive past 3000 RPM to home. 3. Kept checking oil and no intermix. Coolant Res is under pressure after the warmup. I took the car to another shop and the guy says it sounds like a blown head gasket. He will try to scope this out to see if there's crack in cylinder walls. Meanwhile, I'll call up Vision or anyone else for a machined head to see if I can get a price on a used head.

Sorry to hear that and no, it's unlikely the head gaskets. You need a better shop that knows these engines. MkII is not known for cracked head either. If it's the head, you can send it to Hoffman automotive machine in GA for repair. If it's the cylinder, it will need to be re-sleeved. I hope Jake or other more knowledgeable will chime in soon.

It does sound like a blown head gasket - in any other car. I hope it turns out to be affordable.

Next step is to get the head removed and pressure tested , if your lucky it will be the head of not it will be the cylinder it cracks at the top on the thrust face in a sort of d shape hence the term d chunk , in this case you will need to remove the casings to get the cylinder re sleeved and your into the realms of a full rebuild but I feel this is better than a replacement used motor as you can replace all worn parts so engine is as good as new, if your handy you can tackle it yourself??

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I thought d-chunk was at the crank end of the cylinder rather than the head end. Is that not correct? It's also supposed to be pretty rare (to almost unheard of) on anything from 01 on right?

No, the D-chunk happens at the top end of the cylinder, and it can happen on newer cars, too (there was a thread about a d-chunked 2006 a month or two ago in the 997 forum ) but it's not nearly as common. In that same thread, there was this comment: " this is the third 997 reporting this type of failure on this board and 6 speed." So definitely rare, but not necessarily unheard of...

Coolant in cylinder means cracked cylinder or d chunk, it's not a cracked head.