Misfire hours after washing engine bay...

[ranger7ltr]

So I decided to clean the engine bay of my 1999 Explorer 4.0 OHV and stopped by the local car wash... Sprayed Engine Brite on the engine and firewall and proceeded to wash the engine with first low pressure degreaser and then high pressure soap and water. Finished cleaning and started engine and drove home.. Ran great and had been running great after replacing some desperately needed maintenance items...

Started installing stereo components and had to stop for lunch with the better half.. Started the X to move it and it rans like crap...Shaking, vibrating, barely able to move under its own power... Then the PCM sets a code.. P0302...

So I start looking for trouble... I was going to replace the wires anyway so I did.. Pulled the #2 plug out and it looks like crap too so I change them all.. I cranked the engine with #2 plug out and there is compression there.. I don't know YET how much though.. I am running 65 psi fuel pressure and I have one helluva hot blue-white spark from the coil pack[Don't ask how I found out]..

This engine had been running great up till I started it to move it...2-3 hours after I cleaned the engine... Except for removing the 10 year old test dirt in the engine bay I had done nothing to the top end and the coolant is staying in the radiator and block and the oil is staying in the pan and bearings...

So back to this misfire; is there a way to use the scantool to test injector function? The other new plugs are looking light brown color..#2 plug still looks like it is not burning.. But I can't smell fuel on it and that is why I want to test the injector function..

I am at a loss on this one.. Except for some loss of compression I can't explain what the hell happened and what I need to do to fix it... Any ideas are appreciated..

 

[robertoa1a]

My first GUESS Is that the 16,000 psi from the power washer might have blown the wiring harness lose on the #2 injector. See if you can get to it and work it back on. If the wire is broke then you have to do the deed (soldier it back on).

Water doesn't usualy hurt the engine but some of them power washers are brutal.

 

[ranger7ltr]

I thought that as well but why didn't that happen when I started it up and drove another 30 mins or so...Physically the harness connector is on the injector and is pretty darn tight...

I think I need to just remove the upper intake to remove/swap the injectors but this is the direction I am leaning toward.. Plus I have to wait till Monday to get an adapter for my compression gauge.. Damn Ford head and their recessed plug holes!!!! I have 2 compression testers and can't get either one into the threaded part of the spark plug hole before the body contacts the head...

You would'nt happen to know the PID parameters for the injectors do you? I can look those up with my scan tool if I can get the pid numbers for the tool to look at and tell the status...

 

[my98nnj]

Check for moisture in all the electrical connectors. Water got into one of them causing the misfire. I doubt it's any sort of mechanical issue.

 

[ranger7ltr]

I have struck oil...

I yanked the upper intake off and checked the injectors.. I definitely have a dead one.. Plus the rest look like crap too.. So I replaced them with some spare orange ones from my last Explorer 5 liter intake...

But that is not the problem.. I am getting fuel to the cylinders.. All of the cylinders...But I am pumping oil smoke out the engine now..

Cylinder #2 is the suspect and it confirmed the problem by not getting much compression when turning over the engine with the starter... If I start the engine with #2 plug out the sound is what I would expect when the starter spins it over...

I am afraid it is terminal...

 

[robertoa1a]

One of the most confusing things you can come across is when a problem happens by coinsinence after you did something else. One time I got a CEL after I changed the oil. It was unrelated. 96eb96 posted something in reply to my question concerning cone readers. My thread was titled "code reader seeking software" and you can find it on one of the next few pages.

 

[TheJackal]

The Owner's Manual shows that the coil pack, as well as the air filter enclosure and the battery, should be covered during washing. Basically, you don't want water in anything electrical, or where the engine is trying to take in air.

Funny thing is, for the SOHC, they highlighted the BJB to be covered too, but for the OHV and the 5.0L engines they don't show you covering the BJB. Strange... but I'd do it anyway.

 

[ranger7ltr]

It's not terminal after all!!!!

Decided to pull the pass. side valve cover before I pulled the V6 and started prepping the truck for its V8 transplant...Was hoping to find the holy grail under that valve cover I guess...

Got it off the engine and I found an intake valve pushrod for cylinder #2 laying on the side of exhaust valve rocker cylinder #3... OMG...What is this? I didn't expect to find this....

I found so much sludge under this valve cover that I am guessing the rocker stuck in the down position and the pushrod fell out...I still say that I have not ever seen a running engine with this much sludge in it....

So loosen the rockers and reinsert the pushrod and make sure it is in the right spot.. Clean the rockers so the oil can actually get to them...And clean as much of the sludge out of the top end short of pulling the lower intake.. [Yeah, that is next]...

Tighten the rockers down and make sure the rockers are in the right places and turn the engine over.. Watch the intake valve move on #2 now.. Yeehaa...

Close it up and start the engine and it runs now on all 6 cylinders!!!! Now to find out if the replacement injectors are compatible with this engine...

 

[robertoa1a]

WOW. Sorry to hear that. I have a v8 with some sludge. I'll keep that in mind. Im glad you were able to find out the real problem. It really could have driven you nuts had you not pulled the cover. That REALLY had nothing to do with the car wash.

One time my oil presure was too high after I ate too much pork.

 

[ranger7ltr]

Well this was a project vehicle ...

that I bought to install the v8 from my Ranger...It needed to get an electronic tranny for it but I had the harness, PCM, and the exhaust setup that I can use in the Explorer but...

I had to play with the original engine and tranny and it proved to be less of a problem than I was led to believe...I didn't expect to find the holy grail when I pulled the valve cover but it was a surprise to find the pushrod laying out of the rocker arm...I was getting ready to pull the v6 and install the v8...