can a bad head gasket cause a misfire.
Short answer, yes. It what is the year make and model of the car or are you just seeking general knowledge or trying to diagnose a vehicle. Head gasket failures can range from and engine that will only misfire on cold starts and clear in seconds to a car that billows smoke.
Steve
@dripper
That is an interesting question
How about letting us know why you are asking the question
Ohhhhhhh, yeahhhhhhhh… (in a Bill Withers voice).
Why do you ask?
In the mean time… This question reminds me of a retired military aircraft mechanic who said it was SOP to spit on exhaust manifolds to check for missfire on the multi cylinder radial engines. With 9,18 and even 27 cylinders to deal with even recognizing that there was a missfire was difficult but isolating the cylinder was the first step in dealing with the problem. Imagine that.
Not to mentions 28 cylinders. Read a story of an airliner that landed and only upon inspection was it found that one cylinder had blown completely off an engine.
Spitting 27 times in a row would be a challenge, indeed.