Injen CAI Damaged my Head Gasket? In Need Of Serious Advice!

I posted a post earlier about my 2000 Eclipse GS 4 Cyl with a 4G64 Engine with an Injen Race Division Cold Air Intake sucking in water and my friend and I were talking about it and he saw how it studdered when I accelerated. We got some Gas Cleaner that gets rid of water in the fuel.

But we also consulted to this guy at Autozone and he said that I have a blown head gasket which is inside my engine and is important for all of the 4 cylinders in my car to work.

This monday 2/30/2004 I am going to buy 3 quarts of Royal Purple 5W30 then head to the Jiffy Lube and change the oil.

If this does not fix my problem I could buy another head gasket for my car online for $42 at this site:
http://www2.autopartsauthority.com/parts/autopartsauthority/wizard.jsp?year=2000&make=MI&model=ECL--005&category=A&&part=Cylinder+Head+Gasket

Or I could do an entire engine swap and put another 4g64 engine that these guys on Ebay are selling that has 75,000 miles... but it cost at least $600 with shipping and taxes... not to mention the installation cost!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2463040370&category=33615
I already put in an order for 4 Iridium IX spark plugs and Magnecor KV85 Ignition Wires in case there is something wrong with the ignition.

Anyway what do you guys think? Could it really be this serious?

When I put the stock intake back in the car ran without any problems. It ran like it had no symptoms at all. I thought hey, the spark plugs must have been the problem and I put my Injen Cold Air Intake back in and the problem comes back.

If after another oil change and plugs and wires the car still studders and chugs what should I do?

Buy a new cylinder head gasket for $42 or another engine for $600?
I already think I will go with a new head gasket... but how much do mechanics usually charge to put a new head gasket in?

Thanks and oh yeah rain is a b*tch

Dude...your head gasket isnt blown. The people at AutoZone are as retarded as you are.

Also, even if it was, it wouldnt cause engine failure. BUT...even if it DID, $42 vs. $600+ for an engine with 75,000 miles? C'mon man...seriously.

Never go to Autozone, I have yet to see anybody that works at one know anything about cars, except how to install neon lights and exhaust tips, and those usually aren't right. A cold air intake will not cause a blown headgasket. If you suck up some water, might lock your engine up, but not blow a head gasket. Plus, the guys at Autozone rely completly on their cheap ass scan tool. There is no way to diagnose a blown head gasket with a scanner. Unless they did a compression test at the least, no way to tell unless there is visually coolant or oil leaking from between the head and block, which I have seen many times on Chryslers, but very seldom on any other make. You probably installed the cai wrong since it runs bad with it on, but runs fine with the stock air box on. Double check all your connections, make sure the intake boot is tight around the throttle body, and maf sensor is plugged in right. And most important, don't go to Autozone.

A head gasket is a real serious problem and is easily checked.
If the head gasket were blown, it would rapidly get much worse, and you would know.
Not only would you be losing coolant, but it would not idle well at all.
There would either be white smoke out the tailpipe, water in the oil, or water leaking onto the ground.
If you start it up with the radiator cap off, you would see lots of bubbles and turbulence when you rev the engine up, (after it warms up enough to open the thermostat).
Two ways to check for a head gasket leak are also a cylinder compression check by screwing a pressure gage in to the spark plug holes, one at a time. Or by using a radiator leak down test pump. A compression testor can be purchased for less then $10 at a place like Harbor Freight or J.C. Whitney.

But you never want to do a head gasket unless you have to. You have to check the head to see if it is warped, since that is what usually caused head gasket failure. And if the engine is overhead cam, you have to reset the timing belt properly.
Head gasket labor usually runs over $500.

If the old manifold works fine, then why not just leave it on?

Most of the people who work at Autozone also probably know that your car is rwd too! My suggestion is don't take TOO MUCH advice from anyone who works at Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, Murray's, Lube Stop, or Valvoline. They know jack shit about cars. 2 weeks after an oil change through lube stop(biggest mistake i ever made) i went back because i was very low on oil. The guy there blamed me for being low on oil, saying i beat the shit out of the car, and that i need to get the engine rebuilt (which by the way, my engine had been rebuilt 3 weeks beforehand, and all leaks were sealed, the car at this time is treated like an infant) he then proceeded to give me information to people he knew who could rebuild the engine for me, because just from looking at the engine (he was looking at a non running, sealed engine, he didn't even have the oil cap off to get a slight look at it internally, though it wouldn't do shit), he claimed it wouldn't last another 500 miles(it's been 9,700 miles since that oil change) He filled it with oil, and let me go. I took it right to the dealer for an oil change, and they said my oil filter wasn't completely on right from my last oil change, and that i lost a lot coming to the dealer. I've had 3 oil changes since than, and it's almost been 10,000 miles, and i haven't had a problem since.
You probably don't need a new head gasket, but have someone who really knows about cars tell you if you do. But if you say that it works fine with the stock intake, then leave it on. You don't need that intake THAT bad.

I go to Autozone all of the time for parts due to their great prices, but not usually for advice. I can't say I've ever gotten any bad advice from anyone except for one person out of the 10 or so I've spoken with.

Regardless, as others have stated, water in the engine from sucking up rain water will not cause a blown head gasket. What it will do however is possibly damage your filter, and the water can damage the spark plugs.

Try reinstalling your cool air intake, but leave the filter off of the end of it. Start the engine up. See if it chugs like it was with the filter (don't drive it around like this however as you don't want to be driving a vacuum cleaner =P). If it sounds fine, turn off the engine, throw the filter back on and start it up. If the chugging comes back, I'd say it's your filter and you need a new one.

Also, if you have to remove any sensors and reinstall them with the new kit, make sure you put them on facing the same direction they were in the previous stock intake system. If you put the mass air flow sensor on backwards, it can cause some problems, and also, if you don't have the return fuel line connected properly (it's not exactly a return fuel line, but it takes fuel that wasn't burned up from your exhaust and recycles it back through the engine), that could cause problems as well. Not all cars have this though, so you may not have to worry about it. Sometimes a sensor in not facing the correct direction can cause a problem like that however. If it's not registering the right air flow, or the right amount of returning fuel from that return fuel line, it could cause your engine to run rich or lean or fluctuate up and down between the two.

Anyways, my best guess is a shoddy air filter.

My guess is that you either didnt plug in the MAS, or you put it on backwards.

I posted a reply on Engineering/Technical about this and what I ended up doing is this.

I took it to a Jiffy Lube and they used a Bilstein Engine Flush machine to flush the entire engine of all liquids and contaminants. They left it clean and then put in new fluids and I also added 4 quarts of 5W30 Royal Purple Motorl Oil.

The first 5 minutes it acted up but I drove for like 10 miles and the symptoms were gone.

One think I did notice is that the stuff that pumped out of the machine looked gunky and bubbly. But now it runs fine and I always check my local weather for rain and carry tools in my glove box in case I need to remove the Cold Air Extension.