Fireblaze

So I decided to wash my engine today. I used Brad D.'s "engine cleaning secrets" which was posted on supra forums. I covered the distributer and intake with a plastic bag (some water may have gotten in there, but I wiped it off before I started the car).

I sprayed the degreaser and washed it down with a pressure washer. I repeated this 2x. When I started the car, I felt a light loss of power, and a very little misfire. After driving for about 2 min, the misfire got really bad. The car was really bogging, and has a severe loss of power. Basically, the car is really misfiring.

What are some possible problems?
I really need help as this is my only mode of transportation.

Thanks guys

Since I figured out the problem, I will at least post some pictures:


DIRTY ENGINE:

CLEANED ENGINE:


VALVE COVER CAP OFF
(Trying to stuff a towel to dry the spark-plug area):


INSIDE THE SPARKPLUG VALLEY, NOTICE ALL THE WATER:

andrewwake

iTrader: (1)

water made its way onto the spark plug wires, at the spark plug side most likely.

TheMole

iTrader: (13)

Check your spark plugs to see if they are wet.

Lexmex

I had this happen once in my RX and I blew an ignition coil in the process.

Fireblaze

^Wow that's crazy. The 1994 SC's don't have indvidual coilpacks right? Just a cap and rotor distributor?

Thanks for the help guys, I'm going to open it up and check it out.

One HoT

iTrader: (5)

same thing happened to me...unplug your ignition coils, check them..might need to be replaced..

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

well,there is still the coil pack(s) there are two on the sc400, and they are easy to get wet...

I would check in the spark plug wells for water...

Fireblaze

Hey, I have an update for you guys:
First of all thanks for helping me find the problem.

I opened the plastic cover on the valve-cover. When the wires (sparkplug side) were exposed I pulled them out. Once I could see the sparkplug valley I saw that it was full of water! It was all over the first two plugs. I drained it using a towel and compressed air.

I repeated this to cylinder 1.2 & 5,6. I did not have time to remove the throttle so I cleaned only those 4. I ran the car and it did get a little better. I was so surprised at how much water was inside the sparkplug area.

My question is: can the water in sparkplug area of cylinders 4/5 mess up the engine? I had some people tell me that it will just evaporate. However I find that hard to believe provided the sparkplug wires create such a tight seal.

What do you think?
I need some help of expeirenced people. Thanks

SCoupe

I am glad this worked out for you and that you were able to post a solution. Reality is you are far from the first to go down this path. There were warnings here as well as solutions to what you did.

I vote to put a sticky up that says never wash your engine bay with water. On the other hand, I doubt anyone would read it anyway.

Here's a list of experienced people as you asked. Ten near identical stories about power washing your engine bay and the nightmare outcomes.

Here's the list, they are all hot links to members that all did the essentially the same thing, power washed the engine bay with water, something I find incomprehensible (favorite quote: "Anything else you can think of to prevent this from happening again?") Like why would you even think of ever doing it again?:

a warning to all sc300 owners!!!

Washed my engin then....

My buddy sprayed off his SC's motor and now its misfiring. Cause?

power washed engine and now missing on 4 cyl's

SC300 engine idles strange

help! engine shuttering

Help!!! My SC might be damaged!!!

for the second time in a row, I washed my engine

Water in Intake Manifold Spark Plugs

Bad Engine Skip

water soaked engine

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with power washing an engine... we do it as a service for our customers with oil leaks and such... The key is knowing HOW to do it properly... There are (obviously) key components that are not to get wet, as well as certain places to not use 1500 psi water directly against (I've actually seen someone damage a valve cover gasket by doing this improperly)...

It takes more common sense than anything, but a few rags stuffed in the right places, and a not-so-itchy trigger finger with the pressure washer will get you a long ways... Some electrical connection cleaner also does wonders both before and after as well... Another huge thing is to not start the car until you are sure anything that mattered that was wet is now dry... Kinda like a cell phone... drop it in water, and so long as it dries out before you use it, it is usually ok...

Again, smart way to do something vs. amateur way...

SCoupe

OK, I won't debate that it can be done properly. Just the cold fact that there are a bunch of members screwing this up when they go for it themselves. The list I posted speaks loud and clear as to the average person's disasterous outcomes in doing this. There are a number of things done professionally for customers that they have no business attempting themselves, perhaps spraying water into the engine bay might be one of them.

Sure, you can do it, but there are a number of people who (improperly) tried exactly what you said to do. There are also members in that list that paid for someone to do it and it still got screwed up. Doubtless these members deeply regret ever attempting this. It's not like changing spark plugs, air filters, brake pads, rotors, amplifiers, speakers, shocks.

A pro with a great deal of experience who clearly knows what they're doing is different than the first timers. The long and (and growing list) of trouble speaks for itself, there is a post almost every other month of screw ups.

Fireblaze

^ I agree with your post.

Scoupe- I am not an amateur/first timer at cleaning engines, nor am I a pro. I have done it MANY times before. I just never had an engine get water into the spark-plug valley. It seems that water goes into/stays in the sparkplug area a little more easily than the other 10+ engines I have done it to.

I just saw Brad D's post on supraforums and jumped right into it. I didn't realize that the GE engine would be much, much more prone to getting water in the spark plug valley than the GTE.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

K, I'm all for a sticky, so long as it's not one-sided... it should definitely have "buyer beware" style wording, but also give the correct info on how / what to do... I can provide info if someone wants to... (when i get back from California tuesday)

Fireblaze

Added Pictures for everyone

vredniykot

well, add me to the pool of fools who do wash their engines and then sit here diggin' through threads (advanced search: misfire/vibration) for hours

washed my engine bay in the LS last weekend, (thinking - neh, i wont wet anything, this can't happen to ME! ) start her up, and, oh no!!!
she is shaking like crazy, sputtering and rough idling
go to Schucks, read the codes - P0300, 01,02,07,08 and it also had CAT EVA O2S HTR EGR little circles flashing
open her up and check for water in spark plug wells, yep, #7 and 8 are wet!
dry them out - nope, same thing, reset the ECU -nope, hmmm wtf???
got some CRC electronics cleaner start disconnecting everything and spraying like a madman and - you guessed it - nope, same thing! WTF???
so i'm thinking the coils have gone bad - came here found resistance specs for the coils, go back out, measure the resistance - within specs, on all points . . .. . w t f?
i'm fearing i messed up the MAF, go scan codes again, nope, still same codes
then i just started backtrailing, take out the spark plugs and oh no, wait a minute - Bosch Platinum!
and i go to the store and get the NGK Irridium plugs and grab a set of wires (just in case )
come home change them out and yessssss, she is smoooth again
so i take it for a test drive, runs fine, no CEL, but jerks at light acceleration in a 40mph range
go back home, change out the wires, and i took the readings off of each and every one of them starting with the shortest one
in a 20k range the tested: shortest one old - 4.6ohms, new - 0.43ohms, longest old - 16.4ohms, new - 1.62 ohms and resistanse rose with the lenght of the wire itself but i was surprised that it was 10 times more resistance in the old wires than in the new ones

plug everything in, ah yesssssssss

kids don't try this at home, take it to the shop and have them do it, so you can blame it all on them