Water in spark plug investigation

[Doc]

I've also been watching these threads. guess I ought to go out and look at mine. I live in a rainforest, with factory rake, and park pointing downhill much of the time (currently parked pointing uphill, though, owing to recently backing a trailer into the garage).



I appreciate the detail on how you stopped the water. I have some flex tape, but might go ahead and do the rest of this for reassurance.

I wondered why they put that rake on it .

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[mtbikernate]

I didn't pull anything apart, but it's pretty dry in there. in fact it's quite dusty from the dirt roads I was driving when I went camping last weekend. that dust didn't seem disturbed by any rain, and there's about 4" in my rain gauge that's fallen since I got home from camping.

 

[Yinzcity]

Checked mine tonight. 2019 Lariat with engine cover, built in March. All 4 plug wells clean and no rust. No leaking from the cowel area no matter what I do with a garden hose. Was kinda hoping this would have been an issue and explained the random misfire I still get, but oh well. Guess it's one less problem to worry about.

 

[micl9]

Well we finally got some rain. Checked this morning and the cover had a little bit of water in one of the grooves at the very back. Started under the leaky plastic clip and ran off to the passenger side.
LOL a very effective gutter!

 

[KJRR]

I checked mine yesterday while washing it. I had drips from 2 of the plastic rivets, center one and one next to it on the driver's side. Only the center one was dripping on the engine cover but was just catching the edge of it. I'll be adding checking the plugs and sealing it up to my list of to-do's before the snow flies.

 

[Jacob]

Well I was going to post this in the spark plugs thread itself but seems this is a known issue that I did not know about lol.
Pulled the plugs after the tell tale signs of worn plugs. (72k miles). The 1 & 2 plug had quite a bit of corrosion on them including rust. Glad I didn’t wait till 100k like the dealership says

 

[jaws1162]

So, with all this hub-bub about engine covers I decided to take a look. This is a 2020 with 13,000 miles that sits outside in Ohio all the time facing downhill. . Spark plugs 2-4 were pristine. Number 1….not so much…. I’m calling #1 at the front of the motor. So, I used dielectric grease on the top of the coils seal and then a bead around the ridge on the valve cover where the coil pushes down as step one going forward. The leak point is where Ford split the cowl cover where a push fastener is. . I put a pan on top of the motor and it has been a light steady rain for around 5-6 hours. Look at all that water it collected. Next step will be to seal the cowl cover to the cowl and eliminate the leak point.

So, with all this hub-bub about engine covers I decided to take a look. This is a 2020 with 13,000 miles that sits outside in Ohio all the time facing downhill. . Spark plugs 2-4 were pristine. Number 1….not so much…. I’m calling #1 at the front of the motor. So, I used dielectric grease on the top of the coils seal and then a bead around the ridge on the valve cover where the coil pushes down as step one going forward. The leak point is where Ford split the cowl cover where a push fastener is. . I put a pan on top of the motor and it has been a light steady rain for around 5-6 hours. Look at all that water it collected. Next step will be to seal the cowl cover to the cowl and eliminate the leak point.

Thanks for this info my Ford dealer never heard of this, and I had water in 1, 2, and 3 2 and 3 were a swimming pool at least a quart of water, and like you I parked my truck backed into my drive down hill.

 

[Redwinemaker]

T

So, with all this hub-bub about engine covers I decided to take a look. This is a 2020 with 13,000 miles that sits outside in Ohio all the time facing downhill. . Spark plugs 2-4 were pristine. Number 1….not so much…. I’m calling #1 at the front of the motor. So, I used dielectric grease on the top of the coils seal and then a bead around the ridge on the valve cover where the coil pushes down as step one going forward. The leak point is where Ford split the cowl cover where a push fastener is. . I put a pan on top of the motor and it has been a light steady rain for around 5-6 hours. Look at all that water it collected. Next step will be to seal the cowl cover to the cowl and eliminate the leak point.

Thanks so much for the info. It's painfully obvious what's happening here. Too bad Ford won't admit it, or deal with it.

 

[Redwinemaker]

My truck faced downhill also part of the time, I would assume this allows the water to travel across the head, #1 was where they couldn't get the plug out period.

 

[Jason B]

My truck faced downhill also part of the time, I would assume this allows the water to travel across the head, #1 was where they couldn't get the plug out period.

Remind me again. Is #1 the plug closest to the radiator? If it is, isn't it odd that water can travel to it and not settle in the other 3?

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