Can you drive with a dead cylinder?

dogememe

dogememe

Joined
Apr 15, 2017
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Location
Napa, CA.
Hypothetically if you disconnect the fuel injector, if you have no compression in one cylinder (due to the spark plug missing or broken valve or for some other related reason), can you drive a vehicle like that for an extended period of time?

The vehicle in question is an F-250 5.4 that runs and drives fine but I have issues with cylinder 3. Except for the check engine light being on and a rough idle, would the rest of the engine be OK driving like this? The vehicle does drive totally fine, has no trouble accelerating or driving at highway speeds.
 
IMHO I think that you could...just based on previous experience with dead cylinders.
 
With a spark plug out, it would draw in some unfiltered air, and I imagine enough dust, to ruin that cylinder and the motor eventually. Running it with the plug in and no fuel would be fine for a very long time.
 
I did it when I was a kid with a GM 292 straight six in one of our trucks. Pulled a spark plug wire. It ran, but shook, and had no power, but other than that it was fine. I've always wondered if I damaged they cylinder by washing the oil off with gasoline? I probably ran it a couple miles at 35MPH. Never did tell dad about that one. Come to think about it, there were a lot of things I didn't tell him. I'm guessing he probably knew about most of them.
 
In my carbureted cars I couldn’t even shut off fuel to the bad cylinder and I was lucky often to have more than 6 in the v8 I had as a kid. Granted, that was hard on the oil and the engine got rebuilt eventually. Pulling the injector takes care of the riskiest stress.

keep the spark plug in the hole, it will just act like an air pump with a spring, which the cat might appreciate.

keep a lower gear to reduce the vibrations.

the ecu will probably trip and drive in open loop mode, so lower mpg is probably a thing.
 
Without a spark plug, dirt will get in and destroy that cylinder.

You can drive this with a dead cylinder, but it’s not a long term solution.

You‘ll wear out that bore, and ruin what’s left of the engine, and most of the value of the truck.

But if this is the truck with the helicoil, JB Weld spark plug fix that didn’t work, I’m not certain there is much value left in it.
 
My 3V V10 dropped a valve and I still hauled ~3 loads of gravel in a dump trailer.....say 40 miles round trip x 3
 
It will run, not well, but it will run. You won't be doing the engine any favors either. It won't pass NYS inspection when the time comes, I'm sure that would be the case for several other states too.
 
Back in the late 1960's when I was in college, I knew a guy that had a failed piston in a straight six. He removed the pan and head, removed the bad piston, hammered a locust post into the cylinder, buttoned it back up and drove it. Shook a lot but he ran it for the better part of a year before it gave up the ghost!
 
Boomer said:
Back in the late 1960's when I was in college, I knew a guy that had a failed piston in a straight six. He removed the pan and head, removed the bad piston, hammered a locust post into the cylinder, buttoned it back up and drove it. Shook a lot but he ran it for the better part of a year before it gave up the ghost!
Click to expand...
I had a friend in college who traded a used microwave oven for a similar five-cylinder Chevrolet Nova.
 
a lot of gas guzzlers still do that, its the problematic PITA cylinder deactivation some models use!! as long as nothing physical like the mentioned dropped valve gets in the way + shutting off the fuel is prolly key
 
dogememe said:
Hypothetically if you disconnect the fuel injector, if you have no compression in one cylinder (due to the spark plug missing or broken valve or for some other related reason), can you drive a vehicle like that for an extended period of time?

The vehicle in question is an F-250 5.4 that runs and drives fine but I have issues with cylinder 3. Except for the check engine light being on and a rough idle, would the rest of the engine be OK driving like this? The vehicle does drive totally fine, has no trouble accelerating or driving at highway speeds.
Click to expand...
Sure, I had a friend about 20 years ago or so that ran his 93 Chevy K1500 350 around for over a year with 2 cylinders that had no spark because he didn't bother to make sure his spark plug wires were secured and couldn't touch his headers after a full tune up and distributor swap. He always complained that it was a dog although I thought it had more to do with the 6" lift he decided to put on the thing with 35" tires. Turns out it was both although it definitely had better power once he found the damaged wires and replaced them. Other than being down on power and horrible fuel mileage (again, TBI motor and a lift does this too) it ran just fine. No codes but since it was a 93 it was still OBD1 and there isn't much it could do to check for no spark condition as that ECM didn't have anything for that at the time. Now on a modern OBD2 vehicle its probably going to be a lot worse and throw multiple codes but should still drive.
 
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