HElp me im an idiot

[Eddie B 2000]

Ok so I have a leak in my radiator. I only have been driving my car when I absolutly have to. I've been getting by with repeated doeses of stopleak and pulling over and puting water in whenever I heat up too much. Yesterday I had to drive it to work and while the guage never got to high I could tell it was overheating again. I pulled over as soon as I could and began pouring water in it. It was pretty close to full. When I started the car it was shuttering and it seemed like it was losing power. I drove it the other 3 mi to work and as I went along the shutting got worse and almost seemed like it was gonna stall. I let it sit while i was at work then tried to drive home after work. After a couple miles it was pretty obvious that something was seriously wrong. The check engine light came on and right before I pulled over it began to blink. It is still on if I turn the car on but it does not blink. It still shakes and shutters though. Did I blow my head gasket or crack my head or is there something else? Thanks

[Airjer_]

Sounds like you have a misfire. Check the codes and then focus on the affected cylinder.

[Eddie B 2000]

Would the misfire be cause by it over heating or is it unrelated?

[shorod]

Did you happen to notice if you have black or white smoke coming from the exhaust? If white (not gray) you might have a head gasket or cracked head issue which could cause a misfire. If you had dark exhaust, then the stumble is probably just a simple misfire due to being overdue for a tune up/maintenance. You could also pull the spark plugs and inspect them for one or more that are either dark and sludgy (misfiring) or clean and/or green in tint (burning water or coolant).

-Rod

[Airjer_]

Its possibly that enough moisture has found its way into the spark plug tubes. Fords are pretty well know for moister causing problems with the ignition system

[rhandwor]

This happened to my son on his explorer. After the radiator and thermostat was replaced. This damaged the converter.

[wrightz28]

Just a word of caution:

Overuseage of stop leak products will clog the water jackets that cool the engine and heads, to say anything about the heater core.