Well... Today, I got a car wash(touch-less laser) I put in a cover on my seibon hood to block out water as much as I could. I also have the aluminum undertray on my car.... but some how water manages to get in the engine bay...

so after the car wash the car seems to be fine for a while, boosting fine and what not, then a quick boost/pull through a yellow light and it makes this weird sputter noise(sounded kind of like backfire)

then driving home on the highway, in 5th I go to accelerate and the car just sputters and just doesnt feel/sound right... and for the whole drive home(80 miles) it was like this, I babied it as much as I could to avoid anything... Lower gears/RPM it wasn;t nearly as bad as under load in 5th. Certainly misfiring from what I can tell.

I get home, Pull the plugs, WOW, pull the first one, SMOKING hot(literally) and sure enough there is water down in there, enough to see(as shown in the photo below)

the other 3 were bone dry! The oil is still fine as well, made sure there was nothing sparkly in it or anything out of the ordinary.

So, I let the one dry, I put a shop towel down in Cylinder 1 to try and dry as much as I can. Let the car sit to dry some more, then removed the other plugs and cranked it a few times to get the water out. Seems to work from what I can see, I'm going to let it sit over night and hopefully let it dry more.

I just want to know what I need to look out for tomorrow when I put her back together and go to drive it?

Thanks all!

 

Water in cylinder usually mean head gasket....

 

Wouldnt that be coolant though...? It was most definitely water.

 

i think it is a headgasket also. if not one of ur spark plugs detinated. if not that sumtimes, very rarly they can back out. if one of them did back out it it coulda possibly got water down there from the car wash. but the only way i could see water getting down there from that is if u dont run a spark plug cover and u just have the spark plug wire out in open.. n it maybe got down in the plug. but that is very hard to see that happening.. looks like u got to pull ur head off and see what it is.. yikkes never fun gl man!

 

Did you look in the spark plug hole before pulling the plug? If there was water in there, then I'm sure it would travel down into the cylinder when you pulled the plug. After personally experiencing water, or in my case condensation, in cylinder 1 after washing my car on my steep driveway, I found that the tiny water drain that is obviously there to let out standing water in the top of the valve cover had been clogged with dirt. You can even see the drain in your picture above. So....when I washed my car, the water pooled enough that it got past the rubber coil boot, and condensed inside the spark plug hole. I've since cleared out the drain, and just to be safe, I actually place a sheet of aluminum foil over the top of the valve cover every time I wash my car in my driveway. Otherwise, I've never had a problem with water in that cylinder. Thought I'd share, since it sounds like you've run into the same issue.

 

I agree with ^

I had water mysteriously end up in a spark plug tube on my old Talon, had damn near a solid misfire on that cylinder under any real load. No idea how it got down there, hadn't rained, hadn't been through a car wash, it just showed up and ruined my drive to work that morning, then again when I pulled the plug at the parts store and saw water between the plug electrodes and on the piston... Then a second look noticed the wet plug boot, upper ceramic insulator, and threads, and it all made sense. Replaced the plugs and never looked back.

Moral of my story, throw a new set of plugs in and if the problem goes away just laugh it off.

Also of note, I have no louvers below my hood vent, no under tray, and no spark plug cover. Only thing that's ever been f'd by a car wash is the connector for my rear O2 when it fell out of the body.

 

Thanks for your help Brandon!! Unfortunately this morning, I placed the plugs back in after confirming everything is dry. put everything back together, tried starting, ALMOST ran Almost. Tried a few more times, held my foot to the floor to avoid flooding(didnt help) didnt start. Car made awful metal on metal noises too Pulled plugs, all soaked in gas... Swapped the plugs to a different set... and repeated... same issue when starting, same metal noises, doesnt sound good, but again I'm no expert

I honestly for the life of me cannot recall. The shaft of the coil was wet so I want to say yes. But your theory/experience does make sense. However mine has more extended damage Had to limp it home on this for like 80 miles :/ as posted above in response to Evoracingstar, is my latest issue
I tried to replace them as well and had the same luck as before So unforunately I think I have bigger issues at hand now, ugh I feel so stupid about this whole thing

 

Pull the head off bro....gl

 

I dont have the know how to do that But I know that needs to be done. Going to hopefully compression test it later today.

 

Go buy some new plugs-- you may have burned out a coil also. You dont need to pull the head. You were in a car wash and got watter down the plug hole--you are firing electricity in water--yes you could have shorted a coil out. Check you plug wire leads-- I have seen these hold water even when pulled, dry them out with a hair drier of you have to. You just need to make sure everything is dry and making good contact. On that last point go out and get some dielectric grease and use it on the plugs and wires--it will help with contact, sticking and help keep water out.

 

Have heard this from a few people. I agree completely. I'll give this ago later tonight. sucks that the evo is my only car, but got to love working from home

Appreciate your response! Will update when I have given these things a try. My buddy is also coming over later hopefully with his evo, so I can test his coil if need be

 

If these "metal" noises continue, you should post a video so we can help.

Also, at the same time, I'd refrain from cranking it unnecessarily.

 

I'll upload it and post it! Hard to tell from the video. But yeah I am not going to crank unless absolutely necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39A-B...UOPeCKEiEEnS2f

Feel like I cranked it a bit too long on this

 

Hey I'm not Ed im Brandon on ct Evo!!

 

Oh crap! My bad dude, just so happened Ed posted then a post showed up here haha. My appologies. Cant forget someone with the same name as me