Sho running wierd

[dwarf]

after driving to work today in pouring rain and through big puddles everythign was fine, got to work, got in soaking wet.

Well I tried to go on my lunch break to get some food and when I started my sho it is running funny, almost like a bubbly kind of feel and throttle response. The oil actually looked a lot higher than normal which is a little confusing, especially becuase it was low and I just added sometimes.

checked my spark plugs and they looked wet, but it didnt look like oil.

What happenend? Am I going to be able to make it 25miles home from work tonight

 

[SHO GoDz 89]

Everything there tells me head gasket...but since when do the head gaskets on SHO's go?

If your head gasket really went, then you would notice the oil being higher on your dip stick, since the oil pan is filling up with coolant. Your spark plugs would be wet as well, with coolant as the coolant tends to leak into the cylinders, and when the car isn't running, it just fills up the cylinder even more.

Did you happen to see if your car was producing a lot of smoke? What about if it has been over heating.
Check your coolant level first.

If your head gasket is gone, don't drive the car at all. The coolant in your oil will destroy your rod bearings.

 

[Brett]

Everything there tells me head gasket...but since when do the head gaskets on SHO's go?

If your head gasket really went, then you would notice the oil being higher on your dip stick, since the oil pan is filling up with coolant. Your spark plugs would be wet as well, with coolant as the coolant tends to leak into the cylinders, and when the car isn't running, it just fills up the cylinder even more.

Did you happen to see if your car was producing a lot of smoke? What about if it has been over heating.
Check your coolant level first.

If your head gasket is gone, don't drive the car at all. The coolant in your oil will destroy your rod bearings.

Makes sense, but as mentioned its pretty rare to have a head gasket go on a SHO, but not unheard of.

 

[hawkeye18]

Definitely. Check the overflow bottle. Green is good. yellowish is ok, but change your fluid. Brown... is baaaad.

It's also possible that somehow water got into your spark plug wells, and is causing it to run like poo 'til they dry out. The oil and the wells MAY be unrelated. But my money says they're as related as a married couple in Alabama.

 

[dwarf]

My overflow tank doesn't hold anything it leaks out. I smelled it and it didn't smell/feel like oil was in it.

I pulled driver side front plug and it was completely submerged in what looked to be water, no smell to it. The middle front plug well was halfway filled with water, passenger side spark plug well was clean.

After using a turkey baster and a straw to take the water out of the front wells it is runs better but what do I do about the back wells?

 

[SHO GoDz 89]

My overflow tank doesn't hold anything it leaks out. I smelled it and it didn't smell/feel like oil was in it.

I pulled driver side front plug and it was completely submerged in what looked to be water, no smell to it. The middle front plug well was halfway filled with water, passenger side spark plug well was clean.

After using a turkey baster and a straw to take the water out of the front wells it is runs better but what do I do about the back wells?

If it is a head gasket, it is possible that the other side doesn't even need fixing. But if you are getting water into your plug wells, then that probably means it is in your oil as well. Try changing your oil and see what is inside it. If you find water in your oil then you will be glad that you took the time to change it.

For now, don't drive the car...let's try to save those rod bearings.

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

So you said your drove through big puddles on your way to work? Your plug wells were filled with water not the actual electrode part of the plug correct?

Im going to say you did what i did and got moisture in your plug well from the heavy rain and is now causing it to loose spark. You can pull the wires out and dry the wells and the wires and see if that fixes it. When mine did it my car was a 5 cylinder SHO and it ran pretty rough. Im betting that is your problem, and nothing of the headgasket sort.

You could always through in some new plugs and new wires for good measure while your at it.

 

[dwarf]

After pulling the front plugs and turkey basting out all of the water I let it sit over night, than this morning I drove the 25 miles to work. Under 3grand when accelerating(or any hard acceleration) I can feel the car missing and when I push the pedal down I can actually feel it in the pedal and in the motor.


Above 3grand it starts to smooth out.

After I got to work I pulled the front wires and the wells looked pretty dry, definately not like yesterday filled up with water. Ill see what happens on my lunch when I try to get food

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

It ll take a few days trust me. I ended up putting in new plugs and wires. The rear passenger side plug was the one that did it for me. You have a 5 cylinder SHO runs real strong dont it LOL

 

[dwarf]

Alright, so I drove the SHO on my lunch break. It was pouring rain still, ran out to my car, popped the hood and put the 3 front plug wires back in.

On the way to the store the car was running a lot smoother and only bogging/missing until 1500rpms or under heavy accerlation.

After I left safeway and on my way back to work the car was running incredibly smooth, ran it in 2nd gear from 1800rpms-5500rpms and everything was fine, pulled fine when the secondaries come in.

Now the only time it bogs/misses is if im not up to ~1500rpms, also if im under 2500rpms hard acceleration will make it bog/miss

It is definately a lot better than it was on my way home yesterday, and even better then it was on my way to work today, so hopefully itll be near perfect on my way home?!? el oh el, I hope so

 

[SHOMON]

Is the firing order correct? Sounds more like a bad wire to me.

 

[dwarf]

Is the firing order correct? Sounds more like a bad wire to me.

I dont think so. Unless the wires changed themselves while I was driving through the rain?

 

[hawkeye18]

Is the firing order correct? Sounds more like a bad wire to me.

Uh... no. If wires are swapped, you will have a SHO that seemingly runs on 2 cylinders. It will feel like it's being powered like a hamster.

Sounds like you still have some residual moisture somewhere in the system. Check the DIS connectors and where the wires plug into the coil pack as well. Generally, when you have water in the spark system, it will run rough at low rpms because the car doesn't generate enough voltage at the pack to overcome the increased resistance the moisture creates. Yes, moisture creates resistance! This is also caused by an old/weak DIS/Coil pack, which 90% of our cars have at least one of!

 

[dwarf]

Its running normal again. I guess sucking all of the excess water out with the baster helped. When I sucked the water out it was pretty damn hot. So I figured driving to work (25 miles) would heat it up and after taking the plug wires out I guess it must have evaporated, becuase on my way home the car is running fine with no bogging or stuttering

 

[AREA 91]

I had water in my plug wells before. Ran ok, then started to miss real bad. Turns out that the water heated up enough to turn into steam and "pop" the plug wires off the plugs.

 

[dwarf]

My car was running normal the other day when I drove it home from work, then a few hours later when I went to go to the store it was doing it again.

I feel like I need to look at the rear spark banks, becuase the 2 of the front ones had water.

If my rear ones are filled with water or could have popped off like Area 91 said would that cause this? It's just wierd that it was driving perfectly fine and then it went back to misfiring.

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

Yes it would cause it. Like i said i had trouble with the rear bank on my car. My wires were old and the moisture had gotten up inside the boot near the top of the plug, so i just replaced my wires and plugs for good measure.

Avoid puddles with the SHO LOL

 

[stangeater]

Old wires with cracks in them will give you the same symptoms when it gets damp out. Water and spark=not good!

 

[Off Road SHO]

The reason the plug wells fill up with oil is that the plugwell seal is old and not sealing very well, AND (this is the important part so pay attention) the plugwire boot seals against the valve cover too well, sort of.

When the air trapped inside the plug well heats up during driving, it expands and therefore forces its way out of the well past the plug wire's boot. When it cools down the well tries to suck air back into the well. The boot seals better than the valve cover seal at the bottom so air is sucked in along with any oil that is around the base seal.

Water that is splashed up onto the valve cover's recessed groove around the plug wells is sucked into the well as soon as the cooling down process begins. Especially so if the bottom plug well seals are doing their job well. The vacuum that is created by a cooling down plugwell will suck in anything that is near that hole, whether it be water, air or antifreeze. Didn't you guys ever see the ending to Alien Ressurection?:laugh_ti:

Here is a solution if you're tired of cleaning the water and oil out of the plug wells and you don't want to change out the bottom plug well seals. Vent the plug wells. Easy to do and works well; we used to do it on all of our off road cars that we drove in rain and DEEP puddles.

To do this you need to place a small vent hole in the top of each boot. I used a hot ice pick. A drill bit doesn't do a very clean job but it will work also. You want to drill into the "high" side of the boot, above the wire. There isn't much room between the wire and the valve cover sealing lip, so if you aren't sure, pull the plug wire out and poke the hole from the inside.

If you needs pics to understand all of this, let me know and I will post a pic or two.

Tom

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

The reason the plug wells fill up with oil is that the plugwell seal is old and not sealing very well, AND (this is the important part so pay attention) the plugwire boot seals against the valve cover too well, sort of.

When the air trapped inside the plug well heats up during driving, it expands and therefore forces its way out of the well past the plug wire's boot. When it cools down the well tries to suck air back into the well. The boot seals better than the valve cover seal at the bottom so air is sucked in along with any oil that is around the base seal.

Water that is splashed up onto the valve cover's recessed groove around the plug wells is sucked into the well as soon as the cooling down process begins. Especially so if the bottom plug well seals are doing their job well. The vacuum that is created by a cooling down plugwell will suck in anything that is near that hole, whether it be water, air or antifreeze. Didn't you guys ever see the ending to Alien Ressurection?:laugh_ti:


Tom

That was very technical