Help me pass my inspection

[riceman1230]

I wish I knew more about cars, but unfortunately I don't.
I have a 94 Escort Wagon that about a year ago blew a cylinder. It's still rolling, but the problem I have is that I can't pass an inspection due to the exhaust. I can't buy another car right now, and I can't afford an engine replacement; I was wondering if it is possible to fix the car so that it at least passes inspection. The one idea I have is to rig it so the bad cylinder does not get fed any gasoline; is that possible? And if so, would that work?
If any of you know, please help me. Or if you have a better solution, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you,
T

[KimMG]

What do you mean by "blew a cylinder"?

[riceman1230]

Thanks for the reply.
What I mean by "blew a cylinder" is that there was some major event in/with one of the cylinders and it no longer works. I took it in to a professional mechanic and he said that to get the car running like it should, the engine would need to be rebuilt. Right now the car is running on 3 of the 4 cylinders. It's sort of a rough ride and has little power.
I'm fine with it running like it is for now, I just need to find a way to pass inspection. I took it in for a state inspection and it failed due to the emission.
So any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
T

[mightymoose_22]

You need to find out from that mechanic exactly what is wrong. If there was something wrong mechanically that was serious, you would not even be driving on 3 cylinders. If it is simply a head gasket leak, that can be repaired easily. By "blowing a cylinder" I am assuming you mean that the cylinder has no compression, which most likely is the gasket or possibly something with the valves.... but either way it is fixable and does not require a new engine.
Getting a head gasket done at a shop will probably set you back a couple hundred bucks, but you'd likely get a new timing belt and water pump in the process too.

If your mechanic can't tell you EXACTLY what is wrong, or what he believes is wrong, take it somewhere else.

Have them do a compression check on it.

[riceman1230]

I dug through my semi-organized file cabinet and found the repair order.
I quote, "Engine test found #4 cylinder has no compression."
Is that something that can really be fixed with just a few hundred dollars? If that's true, you are a life saver. They told me that it would cost somewhere in the ballpark of $2500 or more to fix. What do you think?
Thank you for your reply. T

[mightymoose_22]

I think a brand new engine would cost less than that.

It does not say why #4 has no compression. You need to find out. I don't know how they could come to that figure without investigating the cause for the compression loss.

I new head gasket is only maybe $30 or so, but the labor to get it on there plus new belts if you opt to do it at the same time... you would be looking at $300-400 at a decent shop... tops. And most of that is just labor.

Parts alone... head gasket, timing belt, water pump, accessory belt, should you opt to do all of that, would total around a hundred bucks. It would also require a coolant refill, so add that in too... but WAY less than $2500.

However, if something has been identified that is mechanically wrong with the head or the piston, you could be looking at more. The fact that you drive with no problem on 3 sylinders suggests to me that nothing is mechanically wrong... and I would assume a bad gasket until the head is removed and everything is checked out. Take it somewhere else.

[KimMG]

Are you losing, burning a lot of oil? Do you have to keep refilling the radiator? How often do you add oil? Are you mechanically inclined?