I bought a 2006 Cobalt SS SC with the 2.0 back in May. I did not know this at the time I bought it, and neither did the guy selling me it, that it was stage 2 race tuned. It had the top end rebuilt and it ran great when I test drove it and about 100 miles after i bought it, the battery died on me so I replaced it. Ever since then its ran like crap and I had someone i knew take it and try to fix it for me. To make a long story short, i ended up dumping over $1600 into it for pretty much an entire new engine w/ PCM and sensors and he finally gave up and had it towed to the dealership. Now I hear from the dealer that the #1 plug is stuck and the engine will have to be torn apart again. They say they "won't do anything that inolved" so I'm wondering if i should send it anywhere for an overhaul, get a crate engine, or do the overhaul myself. Any help would be appreciated.

 

anyone?

 

If the spark plug is truly stuck...... you could just pull the head off of it and fix it

 

I don't know what im in for.

 

how is the spark plug stuck? run the car till its hot and try removing it, that should loosen it up some. always use antiseize

 

never use antiseize on spark plugs, it will cause them to back out, antiseize is for parts that could potentially rust. Your spark plugs arent rusting into an aluminum head, and modern spark plugs all come coated in some form of nickel or zinc from the factory these days anyway. My brother made this noob mistake on his car and all his plugs backed out after a week and i pulled all his plugs from the head and they were caked with antiseize.

 

I put it on mine and never had an issue. just torque them down to spec and they wont back out. every time iv pulled them they are always nice and tight.

 

I finally pulled the cam cover off and found a broken rocker arm (which I removed) as well as a number one spark plug with the entire tip/electrodes broken off. Someone put a ton of black rtv on it too. I'll have to get a helicoil kit to repair the threads.

As for the valve that would have been opened by the broken rocker arm - is it a big deal if I just leave it as it is? Cylinder 1 will still have 1 out of 2 working intake valves.

 

The car will run pretty normal with a missing rocker arm, i've seen it happen, but I wouldn't advise you to push the car in that condition. I would drive it as calmly as possible until it's repaired.

 

I put in a heli coil and turned the engine around a few times with my breaker bar with no resistance. The timing chain seemed off, it would go slack a couple times and then get taut. I got the car running and it would run a little rough at 1100-1200 rpm blowing heavy blue smoke and then stall after a couple minutes. One time i had it running i got on the gas and it went into 'reduced engine power'.

 

seems like you will need to build the engine again, as it doesnt matter what valve it is they are all important for the engines function. my 2.2 had a bad valve it wasnt even much and it would idle like crap it sounded like it was going to die at points, once i was driving it would drive fine, you should try a compression test to make sure the valves are fine. now with my 2.2 i have code p016 so i just need time to check it

 

Very possible you have a damaged valve/piston if it's got heavy oil smoke and poor running. I'd suggest pulling the head at this point anyway as you clearly will need repairs to it and you will need to see exactly what the extent of the damage is.

 

Well I would think if you really want to keep the car and can afford it get a new engine