Help! Melted ignition coil connectors and valve cover

tdarlak

Member
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2005 mazda 3 2.3l engine
I was recently traveling back from the keys and was pushed into the median by a careless truck driver. The car sounded like it had struck something pretty hard. As soon as I could get back on the road I pulled over to check the car out. I could not visually see any damage from the bottom or the top so I just assumed it was my shocks bottoming out. I continued on for about 10 - 15 min. then the car started to rev up, made a loud clunk noise, and immediately stalled. I was able to safely pull it to the side where it smoked and smelled of oil. After calling AAA and letting it cool down I attempted to start it. It made the sound as if I was out of gas. I had it towed home and was told by one mechanic I needed a new engine. (No explanation if I threw a rod, or had blown the head gasket, etc) After some diagnostics I noticed the the ignition coils were covered in oil and the connectors to the coils were melted or dried out, they crumbled in my hand. I decided to pull the head to do a little more investigation. After pulling the head the 1st spark plug well had oil in it and it looked as if the oil had burned on the sides of the well. The 2nd/3rd well also had oil. The last had a little oil but was by far the most clean. I still have oil in my engine (full) and my radiator is full. There is no oil in the radiator, and there is no water in the oil (no milky sheen). Also, in pulling the valve cover it looks as if it has melted right down the center of it. I first wanted to figure out WHY it happened, if it was because of being run off the road (I did have grass and dirt jamed up and all over the pully on my a/c compressor), and if so, would replacing the head gasket and the spark plugs be worth it or is this engine really shot? I've tried to start several other times and it sounds as if I have no gas. I can hear the pistons moving without obstruction.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
T
 
Run a compression test on each cylinder, to get overall engine health. Then check for spark, injector pulse, and any check engine codes.
 
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