OK, well a new coil is only 24 bucks at autozone, so I'm gonna go buy one and put it in and see if that fixes everything. Heck, I should be replacing a cracked coil anyways so it can't hurt.

Stay away from Accel. AC Delco would be best if you can afford it, or go to a wrecker. They may charge you half that for an OEM coil.

well, now I'm pissed.

I went to the store and bought a multimeter and a new coil.

First of all, none of my coils are cracked. 2nd, they all tested perfectly fine using the guidelines set by techinfo. They all tested out at about 5-6 ohm at the secondaries(spark plug wire side). I don't have any wires to test the primaries, but since the secondaries are fine, I figured that was enough.

So basically, the mechanic lied to me, and charged me 70 dollars to test a piece where the results of the test are so inaccurate as to be rendered meaningless.

I'm going to PM the guy you said about getting an ICM.

Also..ugh I noticed the engine is going through coolant. I don't know if it'* burning it(though there doesn't seem to be any indication of this) but could this be a related problem? I think it'* just a leak somewhere, but I don't know how to find it...

Also, think I have a shot at getting my money from the mechanic, that'* a pretty shitty thing of him to do!

Oh yeah, lastly. Would it be ok for my gf to drive her car to and from work in this condition? It'* about 5 miles each way.

You last bit of information about the coolant loss may have led us to your problem. Please read this techinfo article on the intake gasket failures.
http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...e=article&k=38

Just to confirm - your secondaries are reading about 5-6k (or thousand) ohms, not 5 -6 ohms? Also, testing just the secondaries is not enough. The secondaries can be fine, and the primaries can be bad. Half the test doesn't tell you anything useful.

wouldn't that cause a substantial amount of white smoke to be visible during driving due to coolant being burned? there'* nothing like that happening ><

Ok I'll try to find some wire to stick in the primaries to test. However, I swapped out the supposedly cracked/broken coil with a brand new one and there was absolutely no change in performance.

Hold the presses. You're losing your engine slowly. No white smoke will be evident. It'* all being burned off and mixing with your oil. It will cost you your entire motor before too long. Read that link posted. You need to get this repaired ASAP.

Please also take the time to edit your profile and put your year and model in your signature area for us.

The failure of the upper intake manifold and lower intake manifold gaskets will CAUSE misfires.

There may very well be nothing wrong with your ICM.

well, now I'm just getting more and more frustrated by this car and the mechanic. What a waste of 70 dollars for the diagnoses.

One thing to mention is I changed the oil a few times and it seemed relatively clean. I'm going to refill the overflow tank one more time, since it was bone dry it'* possible it, like the rest of the engine, was never checked by the dealer who sold the car to my gf years ago, resulting in her driving around with an inadequate level of coolant.

ok well that'* wishful thinking. >< Any scale of how difficult removal and regasketing of the IMs is going to be? I'm only familiar with I4 engines and it'* a piece of cake on them, takes like 30 minutes tops.

The second time I did an L36 for a member, it took me under 2 hours.

Plan on 4-6 hours the first time.

I may have missed this but where are you located?

NY.