Losing Coolant + Cylinder 4 & 8 Misfire - Head Gasket?
 

I put in new Magnecor 8mm wire with Denso Iridium plugs over the Thanksgiving weekend and everything was running fine until recently. Service engine light came on and I’ve been losing coolant. No puddle on the floor and I can’t see any obvious leak spot from the top. I noticed slight misfiring when I start the engine in the morning when it’s idling. Once I got going it would run fine. Fault codes P1300, P0304, P0308 seem to confirm the symptoms. Am I looking at a head gasket leak or something more serious? Thanks for your input.

Some potential indicators there, but I would do further testing before you pull the heads off. A pressure test on the coolant system, or the hydro carbon test with a kit, start pulling plugs and look for that sand blasted look (#4 and #8), looking around the out side of your heads (inspection mirror helps), milky oil in pan or inside of filler cap. Some places to start. Check hoses, throttle body heater for coolant leaks. Just a start.

Thanks for your pointers texmbr. I should have mentioned that oil on dipstick looks clear and there is no leak around the throttle body heater.

Any white smoke on cold start?

I want to say there might be more white smoke on cold start now than normal, but honestly I can't say for sure. As far back as I can remember (have the truck since new) there was always some white smoke on cold start. I'm not smoking out the neighbors though.

British 4X4 Inc
2727 Saint Johns Bluff S #102
Jacksonville, FL 32246-3755
(904) 998-9625

Bam..Bundu...so there ya are, and Alan won't be seen by the neighbors sniffing his tail pipe.

Thanks Bundu I did stop by and talked to James on Sat about my situation. Of course I also want to leverage the collective wisdom here before diving into a major repair.

Texmbr the neighbors have seen me mounting on top of the engine doing plugs and wires so a bit of tailpipe sniffing might be considered OK at this point .... =>

I would go by what James says...

Important to develop a relationship.