I did start the car up (cold) and did not see any oil squirting anywhere.. But thinking more into it. as the motor warms up the oil would get thinner and would make it easier for it to escape..

Any info would be great guys..

 

 

if this is a mustang with passenger side oil fill, im gonna take a guess and say someone completely missed the fill putting oil in and didn't bother cleaning it up... also if it was squirting oil from the valve cover it would be all over everything. I would pull plugs and clean up the oil. spark has a hard time making contact through oil... valve covers can definitely seap out oil into the plug holes,if you pull the cop and there's oil saturation on the boots this is most likely your miss...

 

Oil filler is on other side of motor. I do the oil changes and always clean up any spills. I just don't know how oil would be all over that thing

 

Are you sure it is oil?
It could be a small gas leak at the fuel rail/injector and it is slowly reduced to a varnish like susbstance through heat.

 

it didn't smell like fuel. It smelled like oil. Felt like oil. Looks like oil.

I might take it to a car wash. Quickly spray it down and see if It comes back. Im also going to replace the plugs and rubber boots and springs. Clean it out the best I can.

Hopefully, it will help the car run better. I can barely get it over 40MPH right now. and it runs really rough. Still no CEL.

 

If it filled the valvecover completely, it could have oil everywhere; how much are you missing?

Theoretically, the pcv circuit can fill the plenum with most of the oil, lol.

That is usually a very hard drive with certain turns involved, IIRC.

 

you'll have to dumb it down for me in layman's terms I'm not understanding what you mean. the p_v_c circuit can fill the plentum, as in the throtlebody and plentum. ?

Im not missing any oil. Dip stick reads where I left it. I have regular oil pressure..

it seems that the car sits for a while it runs perfect until I shut it off. get back in five minutes later and all hell broke loose. Runs like crap.

Why don't I have a cel?

 

Cover gasket isn't difficult to change just it's in a tight spot. I'd swap it along with the spark plug tube seals. I think the felpro gasket kit for the valve covers on 99-04 stangs come with both sides and the plug tube seals.

 

Are you talking about the COP boots? If so, they're usually sold individually. I've never seen them with valve cover gaskets.

 

I will be pulling the plugs tonight. I have to wait till the kids go to bed before I can escape to the garage.

What's the pcv system? Can you explain that? Where is the tube? Inside the valve covers?

 

The pcv is the valve that sits on your passenger side valve cover. The tube goes from the valve to the plenum. It's a hard plastic tube that runs across. The only other thing I could guess is you seriously blew out a plug AND the coil boot AND have serious blow by. That is a far less likely scenario though.

 

i'd get yourself a new PCV check over the vacuum tubes connected to it, shoot a can of foaming degreaser on the motor and hose it off. then just keep any eye out for more leaks.

then pull and inspect all your COPS for carbon burns, cracks, soft swollen, etc. clean the tabs inside the coils, get some dielectric grease on them. super cheap fix for most missfires on the COP cars.

if the coil boots haven't been changed in a long time, then toss all new boots on. i know oreilly sells a complete boot kit with springs in their omnispark line, part numbers 90003, only $40.

 

Ok I pulled the one front passenger plug that was covered in oil and it was clean in between the COP and the plug. It also was dry in the cylinder. Although, It was a little white at the tip. Overall in good shape. Could a bad/plugged Injector cause this? If its white then its running lea right? Possibly a COP gone bad? I feel like I'm pulling string here. I can see no vacuum leaks. PCV valve appears to be working correctly and clean. I doubt a stuck EGR valve would cause it to run that crappy.

I would a just replaced the plugs right then an there. But I realized I didn't have a gap tool with me nor a long enough extension. Left them tools at my other garage. So, Ill pull all the plugs tomorrow and replace

I did clean and dry the top half of the motor. I have to drive about 30 miles tomorrow round trip. So it will be a good opportunity to see if its leaking oil out of the valve cover. I don't think it is. So I don't know what the deal is. I wish the CEL would come on so I can pull a code and narrow it down.

Any further ideas would be great guys.

 

Well I found the issue.

Cracked intake manifold.

Cracked right at the thing to the right of the injector. I drove it to work and poped the hood and heard a hissing.

I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't realize it was coolant before. I guess it needs to be flushed because its really dark.. lol

Anyways, Can someone elaborate whats going on here? can I just replace the manifold? Or is it more in depth then that? Can I drive it short distances? Or will it do damage to drive it still?

 

Replace the manifold. You'll notice the coolant crossover that cracked is plastic. There is a revised intake that has that part made of aluminum instead. Until you do, you will be fine to drive it short distances, but you will constantly have to clean that area to prevent misfires, and make sure you keep your coolant topped off.

 

So is that explaining why it runs good when I first start it up for about 10 minutes. Then starts to run crappy?

What is causing it to run crappy if its just spitting a lil coolant out the top? Vacuum leak? Is it filling the cylinders with coolant or oil? Is coolant getting mixed with OIL?

Im just looking for answers.. Sorry im asking so many questions.

 

That is some gross coolant.

 

The coolant seeps down into the spark plug well, and causes a misfire.

 

When I first got my car, Mine did the same thing, I noticed I was going thru coolent, But could not find the leak until I had it pressure tested, there was a small crack by the temp sensor, exactly where yours is, I was told about the defective intake manifolds on these cars. I drove it around like that for a short time, then one day I was going around a corner and all of a sudden the car went sideways, then steam came from under the hood, I opened it up and noticed the sensor had blown off completely. My advise is to replace your intake as soon as you can!!

 

In the meantime if you have to drive it, leave the cap a little loose on the coolant surge tank, that way it won't build any pressure in the system, the leak won't be as bad, and there will be no potential for the sensor to blow out completely.

 

So all I need to do is replace the manifold and I should be all set?

Since I have the plugs and have to tear all that **** out. Im going to replace all that too.

 

So all I need to do is replace the manifold and I should be all set?

That and a coolant flush.........

 

I have a 01 Mercury GM, it is a PI however ...... it's a common issue though not every one will have it happen. I did stumble on a 2003 intake with aluminum X-over on ebay once someone parting out an old police car, cost like $40-50 with shipping. One of these years I'll install it on the Mercury ....

 

holy mackerel! a living plastic crossover!, haven't seen one of those in years. generally they all blew out at the seam behind the alternator, covering the whole motor in coolant... thought they all left the owners stranded in a cloud of steam years ago. :tongue:

i snagged my FRPP PI intake from amazon for $180. not to shabby considering a complete crap dorman from your local parts store will cost you somewhere around $200.

don't touch the dormans, whatever you do... they have smaller runners, extra plastic flashing everywhere, no brass inserts for the COP bolts, integrated gaskets, just an overall cheep feel. their not worth the money unless your a shop just trying to get someone hunk of junk back on the road.

and yes, ANY amount of moisture on the top of a modular ford engine will cause a missfire. its not really even a good idea to wash them off unless you pull the plug wires and dry everything off afterwords.

oh and that is some pretty filthy coolant... you really should exchange your coolant regularly unless you want it to turn acidic and eat up your whole system. you might want to pull and check your water pump to make sure theirs still fins on it >.>

grab some Prestone Cleaner and distilled water. its works wonders, just don't leave it in the system out in the cold. drive it 100 miles right away and flush it before it freezes unless of course you want to get a new motor, radiator, heater core, etc. course by the look of that mud, you may have to go that route anyway. probably wouldn't be a bad idea to change all the hoses too.

 

I have a pi intake with an aluminum crossover if you want it.. pm me we can discuss price.

 

Wow, didn't know any plastic intake cars were still out there! Thought everybody had theirs fail already. I would install one of those Prestone back-flush T-fittings in the heater hose that exits the intake manifold. Now is also a good time to replace those two hoses, since it will be much easier to get to them with the intake manifold out of the way. Hook up a garden hose to that cooling system via the backflush and let it run. You are going to need a long, long time to get all that crap outta there!

-Pete

 

Wow, didn't know any plastic intake cars were still out there! ... etc ... -Pete

Sure there are .... I'ld venture to say that the majority did not fail. I had three CVPIs from 1998 - 2010 assigned to me and then I retired and two of them (not the 2006) had the plastic intake X-over and between the two (that had plastic X-overs), I ran up over 230K miles in my duties as a trooper, long idling periods, high speeds, winter cold, summer heat, you name it .... never a problem. Only know of one trooper (of the 12 assigned here with me) who had the problem.

My 2001 Mercury GM has only 76K on it now, so it's still "young" .... I've been meaning to replace it with the 2003 intake I have but I keep putting it off.

(Edit added .... 122313 .... Well, crap .... this has been bugging me since posting, how expensive a tow would be 3 states from home at Christmas, inconvenience, motels, repairs, and how dumb that it would be to let that happen when I have the better part on hand already .... so I decided to drive something else to Ga now and take care of this intake swap before another out of state trip .... maybe a good thing? )

 

Wish I would a found out the Dorman ones were crap before I bought it. I bought a Dorman one put it on. Now its leaking out of the whole driver side at the head now.

Only three possibilities, I didn't tighten it down enough, I didn't clean the head enough to make a good seal, or I broke the new one. Or the forth being the Dorman is just junk.

I'm going to go with a combination of 1 and 2.

 

they should work perfectly fine, its just there not the best quality things out their... I'd definitely double check the torque. otherwise i cant say i haven't seen a warrenty or two leaking right out of the box...

 

tighten to 22 lb ft. if you havent already.

 

Im getting good at pulling that thing out now. Had it off in 15 minutes. But I spent another 30 or 45 minutes cleaning the heads. I got them looking super clean. Then I went and got a tq wrench. Put it all together. Drove it twice tonight and no leaks. Seems to be running better too. Just got my EGR tube fixed too. Real test will be tomorrow when I have to drive 30miles.