IanJ Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Shortly after cleaning my superlight at the weekend it developed a rather nasty misfire. First port of call was the spark plugs. All appeared fine with cylinders 1, 2 and 3. However, when I pulled the plug lead off from cylinder 4, I was a little surprised to find the plug recess half full of water! Fortunately a closer inspection confirmed it to be water rather than coolant and the misfire was cured once everything had dried out. Now my driveway does have a fairly steep gradient which may have contributed to this situation, but has anybody else experienced this? If so, is there a standard solution that should be adopted before washing e.g. Lay some plastic sheeting between the engine and bonnet? Thanks, Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveP Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Just take the bonnet off and wash it separately from the car. SteveP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prs Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 I noticed exactly the same thing with mine , my solution was to run some silicone sealant between the plug cover and the cam cover, ok so a slight bind when you need to check your plugs as you need to remove the silicone from the cover after removal but in reality how often do you do this. I did this last year and have driven through some dreadful downpours since without any problems at all, although most of the water will get in when you wash the car. Phil AV02NJO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnty Lyons Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 To my shame and embarresment I have to admit an absolute faux Pas on this I fitted one of the snazzey new JT cam covers and tried to be a clever clogs by reducing the height of the Rubber plug covers so as to get a watertight fit inthe new cover. All worked well and the car ran faultlessly on LTL bespite the downpours. However on returning home I had to park SAZ outside in the drive for a week [ of very wet weather] , and thought no more about it. Time came to move the old girl and get customers car out of workshop, Sure enough she fired up instantly [ amazing when you read on] and ticked over no problems I took her out on the road to follow Mark who was road testing the customers car, and noted a slight misfire under hard acceleration but it cleared almost immediatly and returned every time I went WOT. All became plain on return, removal of bonnet the engine was fully warmed up now and ticking over well, revealed water lying in the grooves of Julians lovely piece of engineering. Ah me thinks lets pull the plug caps and check, I couldn't believe it [ bear in mind car was fully warmed up and just prior to this was ticking over like a sewing machine ] On loking down all 4 recesses each plug was completly submersed, the blighters could just be seen under water. Now it's not easy to get water out of there so I bit the bullit, removed the plugs allowing it to drain into the hot cylinder [ the water was boiling anyway 😬] and then turned the engine over at high speed to produce 4 steam gushers [ quite a sight] Fitment of 4 new racing Champions and a quick blat and she was perfect and I trust non the worse for her forced water injection jj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanJ Posted June 3, 2003 Author Share Posted June 3, 2003 Thanks guys - as long as it's not just me then! The silicon option seems a pretty good idea, but will test to confirm exactly where the water is getting in. I couldn't believe how well it ran with a plug immersed in water either - not ideal though ❗ Ian 😬 1.6K SS Superlight #006 penn.lowflying.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHRIS CLARK Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Oh no Johnty. That's special engineering to give you water cooled plugs as well as the head/block etc. All that careful planning to make sure that only 'pure' rainwater enters and you remove it!!! 😬 😬 😬 Clamshell Club Founder Member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 I've done this too!!!! (But obviously only washing it since it never actually gets wet due to rain 😬) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.Mupferit Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Yep, Zetecs do it too ☹️ and amazingly still runs, albeit with a misfire at high revs, even with the plugs completely immersed. It only ever seems to fill up the plug cavity on numbers 1 & 2 though which I decided was due to the engine sloping slightly forwards and despite there being a raised lip around the plug hole in the cam cover, water can build up sufficiently to flow over the top into the cavity below. Solution was to drill a small drainage hole in the front web of the cam cover which allows the water to flow out to the front of the engine. Don't know if this would work on a 'K' though. The problem never occurred whilst moving even in a heavy downpour as the water simply ran off the back of the cam cover. It was only apparent if the car stood in heavy rain........or after washing it ❗ Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
normalbloke.29 Posted June 3, 2003 Share Posted June 3, 2003 Whoever said rainwater was pure......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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