Weird misfire problem.

Tally_4.6 · Jul 9, 2007

Ok so yesterday i did a little work on the car, i cleaned the interior and decided to clean the engine a little. So i sprayed some Steam(degreaser) on the timing chain cover and pulley set, then a little on the front of the valve covers, PS steering resevoir and near the t-stat. When i washed it off with the hose i didn't go crazy, i used a fair amount of water to clean it all off. I then started it up and ran it for about 5-7 minutes revvin it up and whatnot till it got warmed up.

Since it has a little bit of a coolant leak at the t-stat i decided to check all 4 plug wells on the left bank. Cleaned em up with slim to no water in them and put each of em back in, closed the hood and i went inside.

Next morning i go out and start it up before work, let it idle for a few minutes and it sounded good, i then head out. On my way there i noticed a little stumbling, but not too bad. Then at a light i put it in 1st and it just falls on its face, and i pretty much sputter to work. During my lunch i tried to figure it out but no dice.

Keep in mind i checked, cleaned and regapped my plugs in Dec. of '06 and also replaced my wires with some Ford racing ones. I will be checking my plugs tomorrow to see what they look like anyway. Any info would be appreciated.

thanks, sorry for the long post.

Kilgore Trout · Jul 9, 2007

You probably have water in a plug well.

Remove the COP boots and put them in a bucket. Spray lots of silicone spray in the bucket. Stick your hands in the bucket and thoroughly coat the inside and outside of all boots. Shake off excess silicone and reinstall. They will now actually seal and keep water out of the plug wells!

Brute03 · Jul 10, 2007

make sure you don't have ANY water in the wells, even the smallest bit a moisture on the boot seems to cause a misfire

Rougestang · Jul 10, 2007

+1 on the cop silicone.

I just had that exact problem this sunday with my 00' gt. I pulled the plugs, and on my #8 and #4 cylinder, there was water down in the hole for the spark plug. I just cleaned them out ( I used a shop vac to suck out any water, then used a piece of cloth on my gun cleaning rod to soak up any extra water) and put some silicone on the cop's, and repalced all my plugs too. I started her up, and she purred like a kitten, eveb idled allittle better thatn before, probably since the plugs i took out had been in there almost a year.

Tally_4.6 · Jul 10, 2007

Ok now i am somewhat pissed and confused. I just got done removing each plug wire one by one, cleaning each plug well one by one, and removing and cleaning each spark plug one by one. I then go for a drive and it still sorta does it. The misfire at idle is gone it seems, and under light acceleration. But when i get on it it misses real bad. I can feel its almost fixed but not quite.

Somebody please gimme some help. WTF!!!

Kilgore Trout · Jul 10, 2007

How many miles on the plugs? What year is your car?

Tally_4.6 · Jul 10, 2007

'98 GT
The plugs can't have more than 15-16k on them, pretty sure the buddy i bought it from changed the plugs when he swapped the engines.

Pennywise2 · Jul 10, 2007

Tally it's possible you may have got water on one of your
spark plug wires or the coil packs and didn't even know it.
I had two of my Motorcraft spark wires get coolant on them
and I had a misfire.I installed brand new Motorcraft spark plugs
and spark plug wires the misfire was gone.

Mike97gt · Jul 11, 2007

remove the plug wires and look for moisture in the boots. If there is none there see if you damaged the crank pos. sensor when you cleaned the front of the motor off.

Most likely it's water in the plug wells, even if you don't see any sometimes you can still have issues for a little while after there was some water in there.

Rougestang · Jul 11, 2007

I would just replace the plugs for like 25.00, you can possibly fix the problem. I'm about 95% positive that is the problem, because you said you cleaned everything, and it was alittle better. I would say what you did is like using J.B. weld on a 99 gt intake manifold. it might work for a while, but eventually it is gonna need to be replaced anyways.

RedDaemon · Jul 11, 2007

Hey Tally, i have just about the same exact problem with you

i sputter to work everyday. i did my plugs 2 weeks ago and replaced them "by the book" and i have a misfire that is just getting worse and worse yet its not throwing a code

i feel your pain

QUESTION FOR SVTTECH!!!!11
could the misfire also be caused by a cracked boot? I noticed one of my boots had a small crack in it when it was out of my car and since i did not have a replacement boot i had to put it back in (but i put some grease and sprayed some scilicone spray on it before i reinstalled it) could these cracks cause the misfire if went un-noticed?

Tally_4.6 · Jul 11, 2007

Update: My car runs great now, i dunno what i did after i shut it off last night pissed. But the ride to work was pretty good, and the ride home was even better. Maybe w/e it was dried up.

Thanks for the help.

Nighthawk, keep tryin man! I know its pissin you off too.

Mike97gt · Jul 11, 2007

-=NightHawk=- said:
QUESTION FOR SVTTECH!!!!11
could the misfire also be caused by a cracked boot? I noticed one of my boots had a small crack in it when it was out of my car and since i did not have a replacement boot i had to put it back in (but i put some grease and sprayed some scilicone spray on it before i reinstalled it) could these cracks cause the misfire if went un-noticed?

Yes a cracked boot can cause a misfire

Kilgore Trout · Jul 11, 2007

NAPA sells the boots individually for cheap or you could go to the Ford parts counter and get an FRPP catalog while you are there

RedDaemon · Jul 11, 2007

Kilgore Trout said:
get an FRPP catalog while you are there

tempting indeed!

thanks svttech

RedDaemon · Jul 11, 2007

Tally_4.6 said:
Nighthawk, keep tryin man! I know its pissin you off too.

unfortunately, it will have to wait a week as i am going on vacation on friday

i hope your problem is permanently fixed

RedDaemon · Jul 12, 2007

ok so it was a nice day out when i got home from work and decided to pull off my COPs to take a look at them.

Short version:
-Boot from cyl6 has an oil-like residue on it
-Didnt smell like gas
-only one like it
-Cant determine if its just water

i havent started it yet

what should i do?

RedDaemon · Jul 22, 2007

well i just got back from vacation. while i was on vacation my father ordered some new COPs for me (MotoBlue {rpm...com}) and so i am goign to be installing them right now.

hopefully this will solve my problem and it not being something more serious

bullitt 736 · Jul 22, 2007

Water can fry the coil as well. Hopefuully the new COPs work for you.

RedDaemon · Jul 23, 2007

just reporting back that the new COPs did solve my misfire problem, however ive yet to determine why the boot for the original COP on cyl6 had oil on it

the motoblue cops work excellently and definitely helped out in the power dept too combined with the new plugs.

plugs + COPS =~260 bucks....well worth it

P.S. i had no issues with the service/order from rpmoutlets....i know some have had nightmares

Weird misfire problem.

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