i have recently brought a escort gti and have a few problems with it.the first problem is that it is loseing water but the oil has not gone milky white.ive had the cam belt,water pump and the thermostat changed.ive done a compression test and all 4 cylinders are holding 170lbs.the second problem is that when the car is ticking over it sounds like its missing.its had new plugs and leads. any ideas would be very grateful as i am starting to pull my hair out.

 

A head gasket can blow in many differant ways, check if the rad hoses are getting hard to sqeeze, if so then it sounds like the gasket is letting water into the combustion chamber hence the miss-fire.

 

thanks for the reply,they do get quite hard when the engine is running.ive just done a compreeion test on the engine and coolant side.the engine is holding 170lbs and the coolant is holding 1.4 bar.ive been advised to do the head gasket anyway.ive had a bit of a stroke of luck as ive just managed to buy a head of a black top mondeo engine that has only done 60k.i have been told that it will fit straight on just changing the parts of my head onto the new one.i'll see how it goes.