A lot of time with high mileage things will just domino. You are treated with thing like
Jumping time
Worn camshaft
Worn piston rings
I hope you can keep her patched up till you’re ready to trade up.
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Valve head cover gasket could be leaking oil into spark plug well?..I think weasle mentioned make sure spark plug wires are new and/or connected properly…Power loss could be simply a bad air hose collapsing upon acceleration (air sucking through hose that draws the hose closed, thereby blocking air flow, causing loss of power). Is there a smell of burned oil in your car that you can tell? Check engine block just underneath where your plugs are, you would see small streams of oil down the block…Thermostat stuck maybe?..Water pump?..Timing belt missing some teeth?..Just some brainstorming going on here…Don’t know that you will be able to wrench on some of these issues, but I feel you…Had a '73 Buick Century Special that experienced many of your symptoms…Could have scored cylinder or piston wall that causes loss of compression…or a bad piston ring…A can of a product called RESTORE may help fill those gaps…I wish you well…Above all, stay WARM out there…
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The power loss issue, and the missing coolant could mean a blown head gasket. You could have a compression check done to check for a few issues, one being a cracked or warped head, or a blown head gasket. All of which could cause a car to lose power under load as coolant is sucked into a cylinder putting the fire out so to speak.
Water in the oil, or oil in the water is the first things to check for. But not always do these happen when a head gasket fails. You could have a failure between a water port and a cylinder and that would explain the coolant disappearing and the loss of power. It is not always a failure between a water port and an oil port.
It sounds like that is part of your problem I am sorry to say. The other issue is you have something electrical going on that whoever you have working on your car is not diagnosing. They are just replacing the parts that are getting ruined because of it seems to me. For the coils to be constantly giving you issues I would be looking further upstream at some of the other ignition components.
Keep the coolant topped off. Check the oil when you do and just keep an eye on things. I wish I had a car to send ya. But I am in need of one myself.
Good luck JoJo.
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Key problem is the misfire, that it occasionally throws codes, and happens under light acceleration. They need to change your plug wires and valve cover seals. This should be less than an hour labor and $100 in parts and can be done by any brother-in-law or shade tree mechanic. It’s very few bolts, even if you must remove the cover. I’m basically certain enough that I would pay to have this done. The misfire staying on the cylinder IS the issue. Misfire codes will typically set a temporary code that will go away if it doesn’t happen too many times in a start-stop cycle and won’t throw the checks engine light. Like I said, im just about willing to pay for this at this point.
As for water. . .it sounds like you didn’t let it get too hot. What you are describing could simply be from old radiator hoses. Feel them and see if they are soft. Or, if you can see them, have a pal jump in and run the motor up to 2000RPM. The hose on the suction side will tend to collapse, which can cause minor overheating. If your hoses have a lot of miles or years on them, this is very typical. The hose should not defor AT ALL at 2k RPM.
TO me I doubt it is anything permanent, you didn’t let the needle get up into the red. . That is engine death. Be aware of all the other things listed here, but I’m pretty willing to bet I’ve identified the misfire code. It follows the CYLINDER for a reason.
Finally, it is safe to drive for just a little bit. Keep an eye on the temperature and oil pressure and keep oil topped off. Keep RPMs low to prevent radiator hose deformation. Even if valve cover gaskets are completely toast, you will not run out of oil without noticing it everywhere. If I am correct, when you pull the plug wires #3 at minimum will have oil on it.
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I wasn’t disagreeing with you by any means. My knowledge of electrical problems is minimal at best. And I have never worked on a Nissan. But I have driven many a clunker with valve cover gaskets leaking oil all over the spark plugs and I have never seen it cause a problem. Hell, on my 65 Comet I had to degrease the engine to see the plug wires lol. And it ran like a raped ape! How does the oil on the spark plugs differ on a Nissan? Again, not disagreeing with you. Just curious.
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Don’t know exactly exact proximity of plug wire to ground is much closer with the valve cover surrounding boot. This problem is also common on cars with headers. I thought I needed to replace an engine in my 97 stratus, these were the exact symptoms and fix. Everything she describes fits perfectly.
I have only owned one Nissan, it was actually an infinity and that was enough for me. Never again.
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if misfires were truly happening it’s possible the catalitc converter my become a problem… the misfire causes erosive temperature’s and burns the platinum out of it…
I have always heard they were cars to steer clear of. I am a Ford guy myself but currently drive a Dodge Caravan more than I do my Mustang 
Hopefully it isn’t anything too hard to fix. But it seems to me there are a couple issues going on. Overheating, and misfire. What was the temperature like when it was misfiring?
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Yeah…lots of issues I don’t want to deal with. LoL. The temp during misfires was normal. The overheating was an anomaly that has never happened before.
I’ve put a lot of money into it already. I guess I just need to decide how much more I’m willing to put in before I finally call it quits. It’s in rough shape cosmetically, too, so no hope of recouping any of what I’ve put in. I was hoping I could get it to last until I’m out of school and can afford a car payment, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Now I’m hoping it will last until next semester and I can look into getting another cheap, POS that will at least last until I’m out of school. LoL.
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You shook the Gear Head Tree and it’s raining Grease Monkeys!
I thought I’d throw my 2 cents worth of similar (almost identical) symptoms and what was causing it, on my '99 Buick.
These two comments are key, I think.
My Buick had the same symptoms. Check engine light would come on (triggered by misfire). It would run a little rough for the first couple of minutes, then run fine. I started noticing it was running slightly hotter, per the temp gauge. Not a lot, maybe just the width of the needle on the gauge.
I checked the coolant level in the overflow tank daily. It looked fine. I never bothered to take off the radiator cap, and actually look in the radiator itself.
One day on the way home from work, I was running significantly hotter. It didn’t make it into the danger zone, but it was hotter than I had ever seen it before. Made it home ok, and parked it, giving it time to cool down. The next morning, I took off the radiator cap and looked down into the radiator with a flashlight. Woah, where is my coolant? The overflow tank still had coolant in it.
I filled the radiator with 50/50 mix, capped it, and the car ran fine, and the temp was back to normal. But every day, when I checked the radiator, some coolant was missing. No puddles or wet spots under the car. Looked all over the engine, coolant hoses, under the radiator, even looked up under the dash, in case the heater core might be leaking, although I didn’t smell coolant.
I didn’t want to admit it at the time, but the clues were all there. Coolant was leaking into one or more of the cylinders, and disappearing out the tail pipe. If it’s a small leak, you may not notice more water than normal coming out the exhaust. A little is normal condensation. It also doesn’t take much coolant in the cylinder(s), to cause the spark plug to misfire.
It started using a little more coolant every day. One day, I went out, to go to work, and it wouldn’t turn over. The leak had finally gotten bad enough that enough coolant made it into one of the cylinders, that it locked up the engine. Water / coolant will not compress.
I knew the day had finally come. I pushed the Buick into my garage, called off work, and got my grubbies on. I started pulling spark plugs out, giving the key a turn after each plug was pulled. Cylinder 1, nope,2 nope…3 nope…4…nope, 5 SPLOOOSH! Engine cranked over and coolant shot out of the spark plug hole.
I knew when I bought the Buick, it had the infamous composite (plastic) upper intake manifold that had a history of warping or melting in certain places, but the car was such a cream puff, little old lady owned, low miles, no rust, etc…I bought it anyway.
Your Nissan, like Moby Dick (my nickname for the white Buick), have upper & lower intake manifolds. Your Nissan’s is aluminum (a good thing). I ended up having to replace the notorious upper intake manifold & gasket. It ended up costing me about $250. That was with my labor. skinned knuckles, and using up every good cuss word I knew, praising the GM design & engineering staff, for that composite upper manifold.
I did that repair back in July, and the car has run beautifully, since. I lucked out big time, that the engine didn’t start with that water in the cylinder. That would have bent or broken internal engine components.
My vote, for your issue, is a leaky intake manifold gasket, allowing water to be sucked from a coolant port in the head, into a cylinder. This can happen without showing coolant on the dipstick (chocolate milk looking oil on the dipstick, and usually over full).
Do a simple check, when the car is cold. Actually take the radiator cap off, and see if the radiator coolant is low. Don’t trust the overflow tank level. All the symptoms are there. Misfires, ran hot, had to add a quart of coolant. If there are no puddles or wet spots, the coolant had to go somewhere.
When I was reading up on the repair procedures in a Buick forum, I read about repair estimates of $1400 - $1700 for just the upper intake manifold. If it’s your lower manifold gasket, it could be more. Most of that will be labor.
I really hope it’s something much more minor for you. Unfortunately, IF the actual radiator coolant level keeps creeping down, it’ll probably be time to start looking for another clunker.
Good Luck JoJo!
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