I swapped my front and rear coils to see if that's why I was getting a misfire on the rear rotor, and also cleaned out the spark plug holes because they were so full of grime that the spark plugs wouldn't screw in all the way. I also cleaned my K&N air filter.
After doing that, I went to turn on the engine, but it wouldn't start. It really wanted to start, and revved to around 750 RPM, then it stalled right away. I tried several times, but the longest it would run was maybe 2 or 3 seconds. So I checked all the connections, and one of the spark plug wires seemed like it wasn't plugged in all the way. After fixing that, I went to start the engine, and it still really wanted to start, but it wouldn't turn over on its own without the starter.
So, figuring I had flooded the engine trying to start with a loose spark plug wire, I did the de-flood procedure where you crank for 10 seconds (fully depressing the accelerator pedal), wait 60, crank for 10, wait 60, etc. Did that 10 times. Still no start. Then I disconnected the ESS, pulled the spark plugs, put rags outside the spark plug holes, and cranked several times (again, fully depressing the accelerator to electronically prevent fuel injection). I put the spark plugs back in and re-connected the ESS, but it still refused to start. So I did one more de-flood procedure, but this time I did 5-second starter bursts with 5 seconds between for a full minute, then waited 3 minutes, then cranked it. Finally it started! (also, I did all of the above with the air pump disconnected to prevent cat damage)
It ran smoother than it's ever run since I bought it a few weeks ago. I used to have a rattlesnake "tss tss tss" noise, but that was gone, and the idle was much smoother. There was a ton of white smoke, but it didn't smell like coolant, so I figured that was from the engine having been flooded.
I was letting it warm up, and then after about 5 minutes, it just cut off. I couldn't get it to start again. This was about midnight last night, so I quit for the night and tried again this morning. Did several de-flooding procedures. It sounds like it really wants to start, but it just won't turn over on its own for more than about 1 second.
Then I went to look at the rags from yesterday when I had cranked the engine without the spark plugs in. Aaaaand the rags are kind of a tan/pink. My coolant is red (Peak Final Charge Global, because it doesn't have 2-EHA). I poured a little coolant straight from the bottle onto the rags to compare. Here's what it looks like:
I'm thinking that's coolant, which means I've got a blown coolant seal. Additionally, after all this cranking of the engine, I checked the coolant reservoir, and it's pretty much empty. It was full when I started.
So my question is this: is there any chance this could be anything but coolant? Would fuel be a tan color coming out of the engine? I had never blown fuel out the spark plugs onto a rag before yesterday, so I don't have a frame of reference.
My only glimmer of hope (?) is that this was also my first time cleaning a K&N air filter, and, surprise surprise, the oil you spray on that is red as well. After the first attempt to start the engine, I pulled the air box to double check the coil connections. When I did, I saw that there was a bunch of red fluid under the air box. At first I thought it was coolant, but upon further inspection, I determined it was water mixed with the oil from the K&N cleaning kit. When you clean the filter, at one point you flush it out with water and then you're supposed to let it dry naturally before applying the oil. I didn't know how long to let it dry, so I let it sit most of the day and then overnight. Then I applied the red oil, let that wick, touched up the oil, then put it into the air box. After discovering the red oil under the airbox, I realized that it was coming from the filter. And sure enough, there was a bunch of water that had collected on one side of the filter and never dried, that I hadn't noticed before.
So, and I know this is a long shot, but is there any chance that the oil/water from the air filter made it to the engine and is preventing it from starting? And as for the dropping coolant level, maybe an air pocket somewhere in the cooling system?
It just seems odd that I went to swap the coils and clean the air filter, and then the coolant seal decided to break down at the same time.
