Given the symptoms I'd start with a coolant dye test,
This is a liquid that reacts to combustion gasses in the coolant.
Test is for head gasket faults,
Sounds like some coolant is leaking into one cylinder,
Giving a cylinder miss-fire until the spark plug dries out but still loosing compression,
the low power,
And combustion gasses getting into the coolant so giving air locks in the coolant making the noises as they enter the heater matrix behind the dash.
And the squeak sounds like a dry bottom ball joint.
Bit of a list I know but the coolant dye test is simple and cheap enough and will confirm/ or deny a head gasket fault very quickly.
Posted Mar 10, 2015 (9 years ago)