coolant in spark plug holes!!!!!

[313blkstang]

Hello all!!!! just joined.. I like this place already O0.. here is my issue...

Uh oh.. My car started running really rough yesterday like one of the cylinders was not firing or so. So this morning when I got up I went out to check all the spark plug wire connections and found that the first two on the passenger side had coolant in them, almost to the point where you can't see the plug itself.. and my Check Engine light is blinking!!!! the car runs rough until it gets up to about highway speed then it seems to smooth out.. Could this be a cracked intake or cracked head gaskets? Should I try replacing the intake first or just go ahead and replace the engine.. It has 153,000 miles on it as of now.

 

[bleau]

I had the same issue.
My problem was the intake manifold cracked at the heater hose nipple.
I'll bet that is your problem too.

 

[95-stang]

Could be head gasket, but you should be able to tell after pulling the intake manifold,
it should be obvious if the manifold gasket has blown.

 

[19mustang95]

my guess is for the cracked intake since the same thing happened to me..but you should definetely notice it leaking unless is really really small.

 

[Whistler98]

My intake cracked and barely leaked. When I replaced it I got coolant everywhere in the heads and the spark plug holes. Once I got it running I didn't know I got it in the spark plug holes until it started missing just as you described so I took a compresser and blew the air out. That fixed my prob but I didn't have a leak anymore. I would bet on it that your intake is leaking slowly.

 

[LI98GT]

Agree with all that it's a cracked intake, especially since the coolant was found in the front area of the engine. I used a wet/dry vac to suck out the coolant in the spark plug holes in mine when I got some down there during the old intake being removed.

 

[scarface]

its been said, cracked intake. ts running rough cause you are shorting out the plug wire...its extremely common with our cars

 

[313blkstang]

I believe you guys are right.. this morning I went out and blew the coolant out with the shop vac, blew out the wire ends and plugged them back in and it runs like normal.. luckily my intake will be here shortly.. Now my question is this, I know there are threads on it and I'll look them up but I just had to ask, I ordered a PI intake.. what all is needed to install this one?

 

[scarface]

Pi intake, Pi water pump nipple, pi coolant tube, Pi intake gaskets, and a small amount of RTV.

 

[19mustang95]

Pi intake, Pi water pump nipple, pi coolant tube, Pi intake gaskets, and a small amount of RTV.

dont forget about finding a new spot for the sensor, like Y fitting...or find a spot in the block..

 

[98vortech]

for the sensor you can weld a bung onto the T-stat housing.amazing idea i got from scarface and it works..cheap to. here is a pic.

 

[98vortech]

o my problem was the same and it ended up being the manifold gasket.because it seems to me that if it was the head or head gasket all the plug holes would be full.and driving would be very limited i replaced the manifold gaskets first being the cheaper way out.good luck man

 

[scarface]

for the sensor you can weld a bung onto the T-stat housing.amazing idea i got from scarface and it works..cheap to. here is a pic.

yup

 

[blownstang98]

I have had this happen to me so many times. Its happend when I clean the engine buy most of the time and then once when my intake gasket started to leak and then shortly after that my motor went to I changed everything at that point went to pi heads and intake and all the goods. Probly just the gasket you should be able to tell if your intake has a leak because it is under pressure and would be pushing out of the crack or whatever it is.

You can also buy the pi cov kit it is alot more money but it comes with everything or you can just use some new gaskets and some RTV it is up to you.

 

[313blkstang]

Well I just went and purchased the Livernois PI adapter kit. It comes with everything and it already comes with a place for the second temp sensor and plates. It also has detailed instructions and since I'm doing this myself I wanted to make it as "easy" as possible. But jeez you even have to remove the water pump? wow... Gonna get started Saturday morning..

 

[blownstang98]

Well I just went and purchased the Livernois PI adapter kit. It comes with everything and it already comes with a place for the second temp sensor and plates. It also has detailed instructions and since I'm doing this myself I wanted to make it as "easy" as possible. But jeez you even have to remove the water pump? wow... Gonna get started Saturday morning..

Ya you will want to replace the water nipple that comes out from behind the water pump with the new one that comes with the PI coolent pipe. It is pretty easy nothing to worry about......

 

[Pennywise2]

Well I just went and purchased the Livernois PI adapter kit. It comes with everything and it already comes with a place for the second temp sensor and plates. It also has detailed instructions and since I'm doing this myself I wanted to make it as "easy" as possible. But jeez you even have to remove the water pump? wow... Gonna get started Saturday morning..

When I installed my Livernois PI intake kit I didn't have to
remove the water pump to install the intake.

 

[19mustang95]

yeah, i dont see why you would have to remove the water pump, maybe the water pump pulley so you can get the alternator out, but no need to take out the water pump itself.

 

[blownstang98]

ya you dont have to unless you wanted to replace the nipple that comes out of the back side of were the pump sits that goes to the coolent pipe. Not like it is hard to take off anyways though.

 

[firstonraceday]

Try a compression test before anything.