Coolant in #4...now what?

[happybenguy]

Hello all,
I have 98 GT and have been struggling with a studder upon moderate to heavy acceleration for the past week or two(only drove it twice after the problem showed up). I finnaly got some plugs and wires and started replacing. I used a small flashlight to check in the cylinders to see if there is anything out of the ordinary, and when I got to #4, I noticed the plug was wet and there was a puddle of coolent in the cylinder. I attached a picture of the plug just incase anyone has input on how it looks.. Im tring to decide my next move. From what I can tell, this could just be an intake manifold gasket leak. What is the best way to make sure that its not a head gasket or cracked manifold? I didnt notice any rough idle or overheating when the car was running. Thanks for the info!

Ben

 

[1low03gt]

Could be your intake gasket,or the heater hose is aged,or the formed tube on the back of the intake where the heater hose attaches is cracked seeing that it's plastic,and is known to fail,and sits near where #4 plug is.So i would look in that area.

 

[happybenguy]

Ahhhh! I was really confused by your response at first...I couldnt understand how a leaky hose could put coolant in my cylinder, but I went and checked it out anyway. Turns out that hose is leaking. So let me know if i got this right- The leaky hose has been dripping past the spark plug boot, eventually shorting out when the sparkplug well became full enough, causing my misfire. Then when I went to change the plug, as soon as I removed it, the coolant ran down into the cylinder, and made my think I had major problems. This would make sense because I noticed the boot was wet when i removed it, but just completly forgot to ask myself how it got that way. Glad you stopped my from tearing my intake off tommorrow!

 

[Bornstanger]

In all honesty you might want to take it to a shop and have them at least do a coolant pressure test. I had the same problem as you in that I would have stuttering under acceleration. I also had coolant in my back spark plug wells like you have had. After draining them they would eventually fill back up and I would drain them again and again. Finally I had the pressure test done and they found my intake was warped allowing the coolant to continuously find it's way into the spark plug wells. So it probably won't hurt to have that done.

 

[1low03gt]

Ahhhh! I was really confused by your response at first...I couldnt understand how a leaky hose could put coolant in my cylinder, but I went and checked it out anyway. Turns out that hose is leaking. So let me know if i got this right- The leaky hose has been dripping past the spark plug boot, eventually shorting out when the sparkplug well became full enough, causing my misfire. Then when I went to change the plug, as soon as I removed it, the coolant ran down into the cylinder, and made my think I had major problems. This would make sense because I noticed the boot was wet when i removed it, but just completly forgot to ask myself how it got that way. Glad you stopped my from tearing my intake off tommorrow!

I guess i could've explained better LMAO!!Glad i could help,and that you found the issue.
Like Bornstanger statedn though,wouldn't hurt to get a pressure test done just to make sure.