The Dreaded Water in Spark Plugs (TSB 21-2147)

[TJC]

I have not changed my plugs yet, but it is coming up along with transfer case and diff lube changes, and adding a squirt of lube to my Tom wood's driveshaft slip joint. I have not even looked at the plugs yet. I hope they slip out easily.

I drove the truck through some very serious rain storms in the low country of South Carolina a couple of years ago. The intake sucked up so much rain that the truck actually stumbled and nearly stalled when I stopped to turn right on a back country secondary road. I attempted to accelerate to speed and just as the truck started to rev, I lost all power for an instant before the engine recovered and behaved normally. It was a 5-10 second duration event. This happened twice on two different trips where I traveled through severe heavy rain storms. The rain was severe enough to cause us to creep down the road with flasher going!

I researched the topic across several Ford Forums, and found a F150 owner who was having the same problem with his 3.5L EcoBoost in North Florida. He went to Ford and they told him that was known problem during severe storms where the intake to ingest water vapor which collected in the intercooler, then under boost the water gets sucked through the turbo into the intake of the engine causing it to momentarily stall.

He was selling his truck because North Florida frequently has severe storms and he can't live with it towing his horse trailer.

So spark plug number 4 has been on my mind for a little while now.

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[mtbikernate]

I've driven through some pretty torrential downpours and haven't had that stumble issue. Makes me wonder how gnarly that rain was.

Got a good downpour yesterday while the truck was sitting in the driveway, so I'm going to take a peek at the engine bay before I roll off to work to see how my fancy new engine cover and the golf tube kept water off of things (or not).

 

[OrangeStreak]

I've driven through some pretty torrential downpours and haven't had that stumble issue. Makes me wonder how gnarly that rain was.

Got a good downpour yesterday while the truck was sitting in the driveway, so I'm going to take a peek at the engine bay before I roll off to work to see how my fancy new engine cover and the golf tube kept water off of things (or not).
[/QUOTE

Let us know what the results were after checking...

 

[Jason B]

I have not changed my plugs yet, but it is coming up along with transfer case and diff lube changes, and adding a squirt of lube to my Tom wood's driveshaft slip joint. I have not even looked at the plugs yet. I hope they slip out easily.

I drove the truck through some very serious rain storms in the low country of South Carolina a couple of years ago. The intake sucked up so much rain that the truck actually stumbled and nearly stalled when I stopped to turn right on a back country secondary road. I attempted to accelerate to speed and just as the truck started to rev, I lost all power for an instant before the engine recovered and behaved normally. It was a 5-10 second duration event. This happened twice on two different trips where I traveled through severe heavy rain storms. The rain was severe enough to cause us to creep down the road with flasher going!

I researched the topic across several Ford Forums, and found a F150 owner who was having the same problem with his 3.5L EcoBoost in North Florida. He went to Ford and they told him that was known problem during severe storms where the intake to ingest water vapor which collected in the intercooler, then under boost the water gets sucked through the turbo into the intake of the engine causing it to momentarily stall.

He was selling his truck because North Florida frequently has severe storms and he can't live with it towing his horse trailer.

So spark plug number 4 has been on my mind for a little while now.

I have heard a few stories of condensation accumulating in the inter cooler.
The solution was to drill a small hole, maybe 1/32 or 1/16 at the bottom to act as a drain hole.
Supposedly, that small of a hole won't affect the boost pressure enough to notice.

I open my hood for the 2nd time since buying the truck 3 years ago. I need to further investigate the #4 plug. While I don't have problems "yet" there are signs on the coil pack of water staining and that one looks a lot cleaner than the other 3. I might just go ahead and replace the plugs and add a little Anti seize to them. At a minimum I will patch up the cowl as others have mention.
UNLESS, I just go ahead and buy a 6G '25.

 

[mtbikernate]

Let us know what the results were after checking...

lol. I forgot to look until later on, after it had been dry and warm. gonna have to wait a bit for the next downpour.

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