It was the 1.8L GXE version (base). When I went out to see the car, I got told it was a blown head gasket - further troubleshooting revealed that it was in fact a blown coil on cylinder number 3.

The testing was pretty straightforward. Hook up the car to your OBD2 scanner and get a reading of codes. For this car it was code P0301 (Generic Cylinder 1 Misfire Detected). I then removed the coil on cylinder one (the numbering goes front to back) and swapped it out for cylinder 3's coil. Cleared the codes and ran the car again - the code shifted to P0303, which means the problem has been isolated to the coil.

I ended up doing a major tune up on the top end of the engine. Here is the box of goodies that I got for the car.

I bought the following parts to do a nice 130,000 km tune up on the car (I get all my parts through Dash Distributors):

• One HITACHI coil (to fix the misfire problem)
• NGK G-POWER Platinum Spark Plugs
• Valve Cover Gasket Kit (includes a small seal for the inside oil return chamber)
• Air Filter
• Oil Filter + Oil
• Engine De-greaser and Fuel additive

The engine only had 130,000km and also had NO signs whatsoever of a blown head gasket (no overheating, no loss of coolant etc). First thing I did was disconnect the battery and remove all of the coils (each one is held on by a 10mm bolt), and then 4 spark plugs came out after this (using a generic 14mm spark plug puller).

The clips on the coils are very tricky to get off - be extremely careful to not damage anything in the process of taking them off. Best tip I have for pulling those connectors off is pressing inward (the way the arrow points) and somewhat with pressure downwards. Just pushing them inward wont get them off.

The old plugs weren't in too bad of a shape, but since I went this far and plugs are only about $7 CAD each, I thought that it would be worth it in the end. This will also help the car regain some of its fuel efficiency.

Valve cover is held on by about 10-12 larger Phillips screws which were really easy to pull off (a hose on the back with a clamp also - use pliers). In the picture below you can see how much oil is sitting on the edge where the gasket was. This is the primary reason as to why the engine looked SO greasy.

Very carefully: clean the edges of the gasket seat on the valve cover and the block itself. I use acetone or brake cleaner for this - they work great for degreasing. The reason you need to be careful is because the head is exposed to any debris to fall right in. DO NOT CLEAN THE GREASE ALL AROUND UNTIL LATER!

The head has a plate on the front, which covers the timing chain components. Due to its design it is required to apply gasket sealer to prevent premature failure of your new valve cover gasket. I used 500°C + Red Gasket Sealer.

After this was done, I carefully placed the gasket onto the valve cover and mounted it onto the head. Making sure not to over-torque the gasket bolts, which can also cause a premature seal failure. I got the better NGK plugs for this car, should help with performance a bit too!

Same way as they came out, they go back in. As you can see in this picture I cleaned up the valve cover itself (good precaution since its sitting over the internals - so no debris fall in).

The last part of the job! Air filter was very greasy and packed with dirt from those long Edmonton winters. New filter is so white!!

Job all done! Engine was degreased using some store bought product. Worked super well!