Saturday I hosed off the engine (while cold) and washed some of the plastic parts with soup and water. Later that night I took it for a ride and noticed the engine hesitating and running rough - like a misfire.

I took it home and figured it would dry out overnight. This morning - same thing. It runs just slightly better when not under load. Once you give it a little gas the shudder is worse. Idle is fine.

I figure the obvious, that I got something wet that i shouldn't but will it ever dry out? or do i have to replace/clean something? 118,000 miles, no tune-up yet, but it was running just fine before "Mr Clean" had at it

Thx in advance for any help. C

 

You probably got water down in the spark plug holes. You are going to have to remove the coils and dry everything out.
If it's never had plugs it sounds like a goog time to replace them.

 

I just read a post about COPs (coil over plugs) when they get wet they can short out. Does anyone know if they can be dried out? Or are they ruined?

Also, are they part of a Ford dealers tune-up? How much$$ for them AND plugs??

Thx.

 

Check for water in distributer cap. I pop my lose, lay it on top a 40 wat drop light for an hour or two. And it always works fin after.

 

I've washed these engines before and had them run bad after. All I had to do was pull the COP's and dry them out and blow the water out of the spark plug holes.
Or if it idles good just let it run for a while to see if the heat will dry it out.

 

I let it idle for 30 minutes and then took it for a ride. Still running rough. About 2 miles from home the "Check Engine" light came on.

Would disconnecting/reconnecting the battery help?

 

CRP, I just bought a 2000 EB 5.4. I had it detailed, including under the hood. It became obvious that they had gotten water around the plug holes and COP's.Right after it started to do the same things that you describe. The only way you will be able to remedy the situation is to dry out the COP's and blow the water from the plug holes. If you keep driving it this way you will ruin one or more of the COP's. As long as you have to go to this extent, you might as well change the plugs and then you will be good for another 100K.

That is what I did and mine is smooth as silk. Good Luck.

 

I had the same problem with my 5.4 eb earlier in the year. I went to ford and spent close to $750.00, but I went thru some puddles. The problem was I needed spark plugs & had to replace 2 coil packs cuz I had water in my plugs. The sad part is there is no distributor cap, the plugs run off of indivdual packs 1-8.

 

So in reading this thread as well as many others before it, I am left thinking.

What if "During a plug change" you filled the plug hole with Di-Electric grease?? This is friendly stuff and would repell moisture for future details of the engine cavity...???

I am a new owner and have yet to even inspect the engine compartment with any kind of completeness. So I don't know if this is a logical solution or not. BUT there has to be something you can do to protect this area from moisture. This however does not resolve the issue with the COP getting wet. Thats another challenge in itself.


Brad

 

What's a distributor cap? None of us have seen one of those for years.

 

Did your air filter get wet. I soaked mine one time and boy did it run rough - kept surging trying to idle, etc. Just sitting there idling did NOT dry it out like I thought either...(had to dry it by the campfire)

 

I am hoping my process of idleing 30 minutes AM & PM for several days may dry out the plugs. I am driving my second car so this is an option for me.

How can I see "codes". Especially the ones for COP failures???

 

cuzda101

You would be talking about a lot of di-electric grease here. Each of the spark plug wells under the COP is an inch across by six inches deep to reach the head. The rubber boot connecting the COP to the plug obviously takes up much of that space, but still, not sure its practical to load up the rest with di-electric.

Probably, folks should just be careful when engine cleaning to minimize water in/around the COPS. Maybe a quart size ziplok around each COP would keep some water out.

 

read post i had the same problems you have to get the water out of the plug holes first then replace the rubber boot that covers the plugs so that they wont happen again cost about 10.00 per boot

 

No....I am talking about a bead of grease to (fill) in the area.void left around the rubber boot. Any presence of grease is going to repell water to some degree. Maybe to the degree of no problems...

meh...I am gonna try it myself because I am always in the engine bay cleaning.


Brad