First - I just joined in, so I hope this is being done right. This will be lenghty but I feel it'* needed to properly evaluate my problem.

I have a 1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE. Ran GREAT when I first purchased it. Couple of years down the line I noticed a rough idle. Had it looked at and tuned up. Rough idle was still there. I replaced spard plug wires, spark pluugs, cleaned throttle body with no results. .......Now comes the fun part......... This happened over a day and a half period. I noticed the temperature of my engine increasing. Come to find out, I was loosing anti-freeze coolant. :O Mmm!

Re-added coolant and (well) checked my hoses. They appeared ok. Then I noticed moisture coming out my tail pipe . Oh Great! Steam! You guessed it. I was getting coolant into my engine. WAIT!!! This gets better. I determined it was a head gasket. Seems reasonable. I ended up re-building the upper end of my engine. Ok.......Had my heads redone by a reputable business which came highly recomended. This included regrinding valves and seats, valve guide seals AND having them pressure checked at 80 psi AND had 6,000 of an inch shaved off each head because of slight warpage. I also had my intake manifold checked. It was also pressure checked.

Are you still with me?

Everything cleaned up now and ready for re-assembly. Engines was reassembled according to specs using "new" gaskets . When the engine was complested I started it up. I was getting moisture out of the tail pipe and figured this was from residue trapped in the tail pipe. It finally subsided. My car was running GREAT and purred like a kitty with NO ROUGH IDLE .

I suspected I had been leaking coolant into the combustion side of the engine and that was the reason for the rough idle I was getting. I think.
BUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stay with me........ I drove my car for about (um) 30 - 40 miles and noticed a hesitation in the engine . When I got home, I checked the radiator and noticed my coolant was down. So.......... I refilled my radiator knowing I would have to go to work in the morning. As I was driving to work, the engine started to hesitate even more. ( I was able to make it to work). When I checked the radiator the coolant was down. Couldn't see it in the radiator - BUT I did turn the car off - as it was running. I was going to re-fill the radiator after work and drive it home.

Now listen up.................

I added coolant. Went to start the engine and it would turn over ok but would not start . After having my Bonny towed home to my garage I took a pressure check of each cylinder yielding me 185 psi for all 6 cylinders. Sound good!? I have spark to my spark plugs. I eliminated any coolant from the engine by turning over the engines without the plugs in it. (There was coolant i could notice from #1 and #5 cylinder blowing out of the saprk plug hole.

Mm.... Rememer - I have 185 psi on all cylinders that holds pressure. And I didn't notice any increase to my oil level. THE ENGINE WILL STILL NOT START. I feel that the engine should at least start if there is nothing in the cyliders except gas and spark with good compresion. This is my delema. I should be able to address the coolant problem seperate from the starting problem. I would like to at least see if my engine would run (even if it is for a couple of minutes) and then hunt for my coolant problem. ----------------------IF there is a crack in my engine block somewhere that opens up due to "heat" - the engine should start. Am I correct with that statement I am trying to avoid tearing my engine back down before seeing if I can at least start it again. I don't think the timing has changed but that could be an issue.
There is no coolant in the cylinders at this point. The engin turns over ok with no pressure due to hydro pressure that I can see.
( Hydro pressure = collant that is in the cylinders creating high pressures in the engine and preventing it from turning over causing resistance.) What I need to do is too hear from some of you Top Dogs out there or engine Garues that can give me direction in this matter. I need some serious '*

Regards,
John

Please read Start Your Engines

I would use "Coolant Tracer Die" first to find that coolant leak without tearing the engine part. Depending on the results under black light determines where to go from there. BUT FIRST you have to get that engine running to find out these results. Pull the codes if you know how & see what'* up. My guess is the Crank Position Sensor as it'* very suseptable to coolant. You might have to replace the Spark Plugs too if there were coated with coolant. BTW: Who did the actual work? A Reptable garage would do all this since it'* still under warranty! Now if you did all this yourself, well that'* a whole different matter. Did you use new Head Bolts? Did you properly seal the corners of the Intake Gaskets to the Cylinder Heads? Did you replace the Upper Intake Coolant O-Rings? Did you use Blue loctite on the Lower Intake Bolts? Red loctite on the Cylinder Head Bolts? Did you torque the Cylinder Heads down in the proper sequence & in the proper stages?