Water in spark plug investigation

[micl9]

I don't get that either , should be 3 and 4 , not 1 or 2 ... has to be a different way water is getting into #1 , I don't see how a drip back there gets that far forward ? , maybe #1's issues are a different source of water ? ??? have to mount a damn camera in there to be sure ...

Agreed it is strange
I only pulled #1, need to do 2-4

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[Jeff in Ohio]

I sealed mine into submission yesterday. Removed the foam gasket tape and used Butyl tape between the cowl and the cowl grill. Used stainless harware instead of the push rivits to get a good squeeze on the butyl tape. Also used weather strip adhesive to glue the hood gasket to the plastic cowl grill like they did in the good ol' days. After all this, the water now decided to seep between the split in the plastic cowl grill if you poured water right on the split....so now the split is sealed with.....flex seal tape....the red box was the last place I had water seeping thru....so I flex seal taped up that seam. Not the most ellegant, but it rained last night with ZERO leakage.

My cowl grill had been leaking in several spots as the firewall pad was wet and actually growing mold in one spot.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

I don't get that either , should be 3 and 4 , not 1 or 2 ... has to be a different way water is getting into #1 , I don't see how a drip back there gets that far forward ? , maybe #1's issues are a different source of water ? ??? have to mount a damn camera in there to be sure ...

My truck is parked nose down in my driveway so the water collects in the valley of the valve cover, runs past all the vanes sticking up to the front where it has nowhere to escape and then pools up where I have circled and invades the front plug via the poor seal between the coil and valve cover.

 

[GhostStrykre]

My truck is parked nose down in my driveway so the water collects in the valley of the valve cover, runs past all the vanes sticking up to the front where it has nowhere to escape and then pools up where I have circled and invades the front plug via the poor seal between the coil and valve cover.

i'm truly not trying to be an ass, but as a simple (but not permanent) solution can you just park facing uphill instead? the back of that engine by the #4 cylinder looks like it has a gap that fluid could easily drain down the back of the engine.

not a permanent fix, but looks like it could help until a better fix is found. just a thought.

 

[Doc]

Is any water on yours getting to the drain holes i have circled red above ?

Thunder storms here till the end of next week (north Florida) gonna get a little floody …

Edit: The next 2weeks, that will blow our my road.

 

[Mellow]

My truck is parked nose down in my driveway so the water collects in the valley of the valve cover, runs past all the vanes sticking up to the front where it has nowhere to escape and then pools up where I have circled and invades the front plug via the poor seal between the coil and valve cover.

Interesting... maybe a little dremel work to allow the water to escape.... although I cringe at the idea.

Actually, never mind, the humps on the valve cover still would retain water... seems like a yearly pull and re-grease of the rubber coil/plug contact point is a good preventative.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

had some heavy rain here in western ohio this morning. my 2019 xlt fx4 lives outside year round and i squeezed the plastic bits to check that spongey material. sure enough, it oozed a little water, but not a lot. looking at the engine bay, i couldn't really find any evidence that it was pooling anywhere along the spark plugs.

the truck is basically all stock, and faces ever so slightly downhill (hardly at all).

i've got 48k miles on the clock and i've never gotten any kind of an error code for a misfiring cylinder, or anything like that. seems to be fine.

variables i've considered:
- if you park outside, has any trees debris gotten down into the vents and caused a clog of some kind that would disrupt the flow of water?
- of those having issues, how many use automatic car washes? those things put down some significant water under pressure onto the truck. could this have caused an issue?

is this less of an issue if someone created better sealing coilovers?

I keep the vents clean and do not go thru automatic car washes. My truck is parked nose down on a sloped driveway (~2-3 degrees). With an all-day rain, the slow drip like in the other video fills the valley in the valve cover. Since my truck is nose down the water runs to the front and pools in the front of the valve cover around plug number 1 and eventually leaks past the "cup seal" molded onto the spark plug coil that is supposed to seal on a raised ridge around the spark plug hole.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

i'm truly not trying to be an ass, but as a simple (but not permanent) solution can you just park facing uphill instead? the back of that engine by the #4 cylinder looks like it has a gap that fluid could easily drain down the back of the engine.

not a permanent fix, but looks like it could help until a better fix is found. just a thought.

I saw that path also...I figure that is Fords answer to water accumulation in the valve cover valley. All fine and dandy if the rear of the motor is pointed slighty downhill. Knowing Ford, I wouldn't be surprised if there was something in the owners manual telling you not to park it nose down. Ford is masterful as correcting the consequence of the action instead of correcting the action itself.

my cowl grill is now sealed into submission though.

As for parking the other way around.....I have two cars in the garage and a camper and truck in the driveway. I need to park as is to use the backup camera to not bump into the camper. I have about two inches between the truck and camper to keep the truck from overhanging the sidewalk. If I overhang the sidewalk, the police give me a ticket. If I move the whole camper/truck combo any closer to the garage, maneuvering the daily drivers out of the garage around the camper becomes an issue. Truck in the garage? It doesnt fit. A motorcycle sits behind one car and a riding mower behind the other in the garage as is. My parking situation and garage storage is a finely tuned jenga puzzle. Once I pour a concrete pad next to the exisityng driveway, I will have much more parking options. Getting any concrete contractor to respond to get the work done has been an issue this year.

 

[SigOris]

I sealed mine into submission yesterday. Removed the foam gasket tape and used Butyl tape between the cowl and the cowl grill. Used stainless harware instead of the push rivits to get a good squeeze on the butyl tape. Also used weather strip adhesive to glue the hood gasket to the plastic cowl grill like they did in the good ol' days. After all this, the water now decided to seep between the split in the plastic cowl grill if you poured water right on the split....so now the split is sealed with.....flex seal tape....the red box was the last place I had water seeping thru....so I flex seal taped up that seam. Not the most ellegant, but it rained last night with ZERO leakage.

My cowl grill had been leaking in several spots as the firewall pad was wet and actually growing mold in one spot.

Do you have pics of what hopes to be a final fix?

 

[Jason B]

Others trucks don't seem to be leaking , which baffles the poo out if me , water and gravity and the factory draining method should all work the same way , why my truck leak but others don't? That drive shaft video where it looks like a twizzler under there , why his truck do that and mine don't? Exactly the same driveshaft in all Rangers I assume ?

Chalk the differences due to manufacturing tolerances and manual labor.

i'm truly not trying to be an ass, but as a simple (but not permanent) solution can you just park facing uphill instead? the back of that engine by the #4 cylinder looks like it has a gap that fluid could easily drain down the back of the engine.

not a permanent fix, but looks like it could help until a better fix is found. just a thought.

Sounds like a simple solution, but I live in South Louisiana. There is no 'uphill'.

 

[Big Blue]

I keep the vents clean and do not go thru automatic car washes. My truck is parked nose down on a sloped driveway (~20 degrees). With an all-day rain, the slow drip like in the other video fills the valley in the valve cover. Since my truck is nose down the water runs to the front and pools in the front of the valve cover around plug number 1 and eventually leaks past the "cup seal" molded onto the spark plug coil that is supposed to seal on a raised ridge around the spark plug hole.

Wow, you have a 36% grade on your driveway? Do you need yo put in 4 wheel to back up it?

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

Wow, you have a 36% grade on your driveway? Do you need yo put in 4 wheel to back up it?

missed a decimal point...its actually 2.0-3.0 degrees. Goin on memory I'm almost 2 feet of drop in a 40 foot run.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

Do you have pics of what hopes to be a final fix?

White is the butyl tape..:I didn’t have any black. Used stainless 1/4-20 bolts with fender washers in place of plastic rivits. Sealant under the fender washers. Ran flex seal tape from top side, underneath hood gasket down across the split to over the center hardware. Used weather strip adhesive to adhere the hood gasket to the cowl plastic. Used permatex form-gasket-2 between the 2 plastic cowl covers. Sat out in the rain last night nose facing down…ZERO water into the engine bay now.

 

[jsphlynch]

Great, another thing for me to worry about that I would be blissfully unaware of without this forum.

We had a light rain overnight and I left my pickup parked facing slightly downhill in the driveway, so this morning I popped the hood to take a look. No sign of water anywhere. I'll have to check again after a more serious rain, but hopefully I'm a datapoint that demonstrates this isn't a universal problem with these trucks.

 

[mtbikernate]

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).

White is the butyl tape..:I didn’t have any black. Used stainless 1/4-20 bolts with fender washers in place of plastic rivits. Sealant under the fender washers. Ran flex seal tape from top side, underneath hood gasket down across the split to over the center hardware. Used weather strip adhesive to adhere the hood gasket to the cowl plastic. Used permatex form-gasket-2 between the 2 plastic cowl covers. Sat out in the rain last night nose facing down…ZERO water into the engine bay now.

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.

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