cylinder 1 misfire

[cold_dark_stranger]

i have a cylinder 1 misfire with a code of P0301 and my machanic said that it was a head gasket and is charging 795 dollars to get it fixed but the oil is fine (no milky look to it) and the antifreeze has no oil in it and its never over heated this sounds kinda funny to me and help would be apriciated and i dont know what the code stands for does that tell you what exacticly to get fixed?

[cold_dark_stranger]

By the way its a 98 chevy metro 45 speed on the floor 4cylinder four door and i have no clue what else youll need but would be glad to give it to ya for some help in return

[Ridenour]

Welcome to the forum. Hopefully somebody else can back this up, but it sounds to me like you're getting fed a complete line of bullshit. I don't see how a bad headgasket would cause only 1 cylinder to misfire, plugs not affecting the water or oil. I think he's deffinately straight up ripping you off. From what you've said, you sure as hell don't have a bad head gasket. You most likely have a bad coil pack, bad plug, or dirty injector, ect. You'd think if this mechanic was gonna rip you off he could at least make it believable. I honestly think it's complete bullshit.

[2.2 Straight six]

definately sounds like he's bullshitting an ripping you off, like ridenour said he could at least make it beleiveable bullshit, no way a headgasket would only cause cly1 to misfire especially with no "mayonnaise". like ridenour said it might be coil, plugs etc..

might help to go look for something like STP engine treatment to clean the injectors, remove the plugs an have a look to see if you notice anything wrong with them, if worst comes to worst go buy new plugs, if that dont work maybe get a new coil, but you might as well get the engine treatment stuff, cost about $10-$15 i think.

EDIT: 500 posts big whoop !

[The Dude]

how old is your car. have you done any maintenance to it at all. Does it miss all the time or only under load.

[curtis73]

A compression test is simple and will indicate mechanical problems like head gasket or valve seal. If it checks out fine then I'd look to ignition and fuel things.

[CBFryman]

$800 to change a head gasket... you can do it yoruself for 1/8th that unless you have aluminum heads and need machien work done.
do a compression check, if all cylenders are the same and up to spec it is not the head gasket.