# Water in the spark plugs!



## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

ok, I washed my engine out yesterday, and I let it dry for a good 5 hours before running the thing. I turned it on to go to school, and it turned on wonderfully. I had changed out the oil from penzoil 10-30w to valvaline 10-30w synthetic durablend, and the thing was running like a dream for like 2 min. Then it just started sputtering, running ruff and backfiring. I took out the wires and surely there was water and alot of steam comming out. I drove my moms SUV instead. Is there anything I might wanna do to be on the safe side other than not wash out my engine anymore?  BTW,m this is the first time this happens to me.


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## Altiman93 (Nov 14, 2006)

Ive never washed my engine due to the fact that i dont want engine in my plugs, or get the alternator wet, but to clean my engine i use break clean, works really good..specially on the oil'y parts. try it, works good


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## glynka (Aug 18, 2007)

Happened to me;I had to pull out the water from the spark plug funnel with air,and pressure air all around before start the engine;I start the engine and wait til was hot,after 5 minutes 2 cylinders didn't work ,I had to open the distributor,and found in the Cap,water from the vapor steam when the engine was hot [even I cover the distributor with a plastic Bag,over the original rubber cover]so from now on I will keep my engine real dirty.:idhitit: :woowoo: :loser:    :lame: :fluffy:


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## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

yeah, my brother put wd40 in there, but now the engine feels funny. Or is it in my head.


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## Altiman93 (Nov 14, 2006)

wd40? did it work?


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## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

yeah, its supposed to drive out moisture. & yeah, it worked, but I guess the reason my engine feels funny was because I changed from high milage penziol to valvoline synthetic durablend. Now my engine feels a bit stronger, runs a tad cooler, and isn't as buzzy(while idle and hard launches) Its really cool having a car that is as quite as a new car and its 12 years old!


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## Altiman93 (Nov 14, 2006)

oh really, the way i drive my car, and push it, i use Valvoline (or what ever its called) Full Synthetic, an runs beutiful, love the car!


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## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Yeah, it made my engine sing compared to buzz when it redlines.


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

rod_88 said:


> Is there anything I might wanna do to be on the safe side other than not wash out my engine anymore?  BTW,m this is the first time this happens to me.


Don't blast sensitive parts with water. The spark plug boots don't seem to fit real tight on the valve cover anyway, so I'm sure water gets in there easily. Could have pulled the spark plug boots and blew the water out with compressed air if you had it.

I never wash an engine unless I absolutely have to. You'd be amazed on what havic it can cause if you're not careful.


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## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Altima SSS said:


> Don't blast sensitive parts with water. The spark plug boots don't seem to fit real tight on the valve cover anyway, so I'm sure water gets in there easily. Could have pulled the spark plug boots and blew the water out with compressed air if you had it.
> 
> I never wash an engine unless I absolutely have to. You'd be amazed on what havic it can cause if you're not careful.


Yeah, I learned the hard way. To make matters even worse, I washed out two engines at the same time, mine, and my moms cherokee. But hers can hanlde a bit of water. :lame: But Anyway, yeah Ive just started cleaning out my engine with brake cleaner. Its safer to a point, but Im gonna let my engine turn into a sty. :fluffy:


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

On the , it looks like the valve cover gasket is what can leak the most. You can get a really nice valve cover gasket kit at NAPA and stop the leaks if that's what's going on.


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

The best thing I have found to dry water on ignition parts and wires is CRC or Prestone silicone in a spray can. Of course it won't dry up puddles of water, but it will almost instantly dry off wet wires, distributor caps, and other electrical parts after an engine cleaning. The best solution is to wrap the electical parts before you wash with the clear plastic film like they use in the kitchen to wrap sandwiches and stuff. It sticks to itself so it's not too hard to wrap it on the distributor and other electrical parts. I don't know any way to keep water from filling up the deep tubes around the spark plugs and the only way to dry those tubes that I can think of would be to use a shop vac to suck most of it out and then spray silicone in the hole to finish drying it out.


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

The best thing i know of to dry off wires and electrical parts like the distributor and coil is silicone in a spray can. Prestone and CRC make it and it will dry up water almost instantly. Of course it won't dry out puddles of water but it works well on stuff that just has a film of water on it. Those deep tubes around the plugs fill up with water when you wash the engine and all you can do is use a shop vac to suck out as much as possible and then spray with the silicone to dry off what's left.


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

I don't know what happened to get the two posts by mistake. The first one didn't seem to go through but after I posted another time both showed up. My puter skills need to be upgraded i guess.


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## BGaZaR (Oct 22, 2007)

i washed my engine about a month ago and the only thing i wrapped was my intake. i didnt even leave the motor running. i started the car and it motor was running perfect. the next day i decided to change the distributor cap and rotor plus the spark plug cables and i found the water in the spark plug holes. after i changed the cap and rotor the car started runnning really funny. seems like its missfiring or something. i keep driving the car like this and i still cant figure out what the problem is.


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