• Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.

    You can register to join the community.

so, i took my car to mechanic...

8000RPM

CEG'er
Joined
Jun 21, 2005
Messages
328
Location
Washington, D.C.
... just for a check up. so here is what he found

1) My steering wheel turns more to the left than to the right. Why? I changed the rack and pinion long time ago, and it has been that way ever since. I have always wondered why i cant make tight right u turns and now that i count how many times the steering wheel turns...it all makes sense? what could that be due to? uneven/different tie rods? allignment is perfect though.

2) They found hydrocarbons in coolant bottle (suspect leking head gasket)...WHAT? is that true? now Tony's how to says to remove all cables and 5 sparkplugs, and test it..but i am still not sure if i need to disable the fuel pump. can someone verify? would that show small leaks? can i use head gasket repair kit or are these rip offs?

3) on start up engine is rough for a few secs. i often get misfire on cyl 2. i will remove sparkplug and regap today. but, can a leaking headgasket cause a misfire? car doesnt over heat, oil has a nice color...doest seem like coolants gets mixed in there...


btw, great new design. i love it :)
 
... just for a check up. so here is what he found

1)what could that be due to? uneven/different tie rods? allignment is perfect though.

2) They found hydrocarbons in coolant bottle (suspect leking head gasket)...WHAT? is that true?


Obviously the steering wheel wasnt centered when everything was put back together and then aligned. Even if the alignment is set straight the rack can still be a turn off.

They found what?!? Is that their fancy way of saying foam or maybe oil film?
 
to my understanding that's a fancy way of saying that in the coolant tank there is some exhaust gases, which could only enter there if the head gasket is punctured. Pressure in engine is higher to that of the cooling system, thus exhaust gases are forced in there. the exhaust gases contain carbon so i guess that's what they are saying.


well i removed my spark plugs and regapped them. to my surprise, the plugs for cylinder 2 and 3 were very worn out with comparison to the rest of the plugs. the 2nd cylinder plug was very yellowish. maybe i can take a picture and post it, because i need to know if this is normal wear, or corosion caused by moisture..or in other words water/coolant entering to the plug. i put two new plugs, and the car starts like a champ... i also added a head gasket repair to the coolant, hopefully that will fix the problem if it was something minor.
 
Yellow/tan is usually considered a normal plug color. White would mean its too hot while black/messy means too cold and/or oil in the chamber from wear. However all my plugs come out red because of the fuel additives I use.
 
ok here are the plugs. Where the arrows point is the yellow part i was refering to. Cyl 2 is where I was getting the missfire. As you can see on the pic this looks very yellow. the Cyl 3 is kind of yellowish, but all other plugs are very nice white color there. These should be plugs with less than 500 miles... is that normal?
 

Attachments

  • DSC001471.jpg
    DSC001471.jpg
    89.6 KB · Views: 0
Yes, they did not "turn" the tie rods end "symmetically" (as in the number of turns should be about the same on both sides) when installing it.

As for the coolant issue, flush it the coolant. Then see if the the oil returns to the coolant. If they tested the coolant using a "chemical" test, all it shows is hydrocarbons in the coolant. It does not tell you where it came from. If the amount is minute, it could have been from someone using the same funnel as the oil funnel when they filled your coolant reservoir.
 
ok here are the plugs. Where the arrows point is the yellow part i was refering to. Cyl 2 is where I was getting the missfire. As you can see on the pic this looks very yellow. the Cyl 3 is kind of yellowish, but all other plugs are very nice white color there. These should be plugs with less than 500 miles... is that normal?

Those plugs both look normal to me and like they're barely used like you say. Just because coolant is green doesnt mean it will stain a plug yellow, in fact water/coolant has the habit of cleaning the chamber so the plug would usually be spotless.
 
Yes, they did not "turn" the tie rods end "symmetically" (as in the number of turns should be about the same on both sides) when installing it.

As for the coolant issue, flush it the coolant. Then see if the the oil returns to the coolant. If they tested the coolant using a "chemical" test, all it shows is hydrocarbons in the coolant. It does not tell you where it came from. If the amount is minute, it could have been from someone using the same funnel as the oil funnel when they filled your coolant reservoir.

this is possible. some time ago i remember i drained some coolant in a container that had oil in it which i cleaned before that with brake cleaner. i cleaned it very well, but reused the coolant because i didnt have any other and the stores were closed..and coolant was only 2 months old. however, what do you mean by "chemical" test? are hydrocarbons detected in the coolant (the liquid itself), or in the air space in tank (as in gases)?

Those plugs both look normal to me and like they're barely used like you say. Just because coolant is green doesnt mean it will stain a plug yellow, in fact water/coolant has the habit of cleaning the chamber so the plug would usually be spotless.

well i was thinking that water/coolant gets to the plug and makes it rusty, thus causing it not function properly, so it wears out faster. well, i guess i have to see if the new plugs will wear out faster than the rest. if they do and i start getting misfier CEL's then i have a problem somewhere. could the cables cause this? i also changed them along with the plugs a month ago.

i guess after all i should measure the compression in each cylinder. that way, if there's a gasket problem, it will clearly show lower pressure. right? or is there a better way of doing it.

Tony, for the el cheapo head gasket test, do i have to cut off the fuel pump or anything else, or is it not necessary? thanks.
 
well i was thinking that water/coolant gets to the plug and makes it rusty, thus causing it not function properly, so it wears out faster. well, i guess i have to see if the new plugs will wear out faster than the rest. if they do and i start getting misfier CEL's then i have a problem somewhere. could the cables cause this? i also changed them along with the plugs a month ago.

There is no way the plug would ever touch water to get rusty since it vaporizes the instant there is compression and then blows right out the exhaust. It shouldnt have anything to do with them wearing out. The plug wires shouldnt have anything to do with discoloration either.
 
..., what do you mean by "chemical" test? are hydrocarbons detected in the coolant (the liquid itself), ...Tony, for the el cheapo head gasket test, do i have to cut off the fuel pump or anything else, or is it not necessary? thanks.
1) In the liquid.

2) A poster in my how to thread stated the possibiliy of hydrolocking of the cylinder if you did not disconnect the fuel delivery. I do not agree with that assessment. The amount of fuel sprayed into that one cylinder is too little to cause hydrolocking of the cylinder. You are only cranking (or getting someone else to crank) for about a second or two. You should be able to see the "bubbles" coming up the coolant reservoir if there were a headgasket leak associated with that cylinder.

But if you are concerned about hydrolocking your engine, you can pull the fuel relay and disconnect the fuel lines.
 
well, no i have never done a compression test before. that's why i am thinking of doing it. a friend of mine told me he had the tool (something that screws in instead of the plug, and has a gauge at the top). he said that i have remove all other 5 plugs when testing each cylinder. then with 5 plugs out, someone cranks the motor and another person reads tha gauge. is this the correct way of doing it? i will try to get that gauge from him, although he lives in Geithisburg, MD (for those of you who are in DC metro area) and it is a long drive.


what compresion should i be looking for in a 98 csvt? i think it should be in psi...
 
You will get the best results with all the plugs out and the throttle hold open. If you have a weak cylinder a compression check of only the questionable cylinder may still tell you what you need to know. Make sure that you disconnect the connector with the small wires at the coil so you don't have stray spark (or start the engine accidentally if you are only check part of the cylinders.

The rule of thumb for compression checks is that the lowest cylinder needs to be at least 75% of the highest cylinder. If you identify a cylinder that is below spec, add about a tablespoon of oil through the spark plug hole and check again. A big increase (back to nearly normal in most cases) on a wet test is an indication of a ring/piston/cylinder wall problem. Little or no increase is usually due to a burned valve. A blown head gasket could respond either way depending on how bad the leak is.

Exhaust gas in the coolant is not the same as oil residue in the coolant. It is usually confirmed chemically with "Block Check" or by using a smog sniffer. If the "Block Check" is not performed properly, it can give a false positive. Anyone with any experience knows how to do it properly. If you truly have exhaust gas in the coolant, it is probably time for a teardown, or time to to think about a 3.0 conversion.
 
You can not "regap" Duratec plugs. If they are worn it's time for new ones.

Why not? They have the same design as any plug from the last 50 years where you can bend/adjust the electrode.

Right, why would you want to anyway? they are 3$ a piece :shrug:

You obviously aren't pricing the Motorcraft plugs. Even the Autolite plugs are $4ish.
 
Why not? They have the same design as any plug from the last 50 years where you can bend/adjust the electrode.
....

The Duratec is very sensitive to spark plug gaps and what nots. Even a "prefectly fine looking" spark plug and/or sp wires can sometimes cause problems. Most of the time, if a Duractec has issues with misfiring, we suspect the sp, gap and wires almost immediately. The trouble with removing, cleaning, regapping and then reinstalling the items is that such a procedure is so onerous that we usually just advise putting in new spark plugs (gapped correctly) if any poster complains that their Duratec is not firing efficiently and their spark plugs are about 50K miles old. And if you put new spark plugs in, and it is not running well, we will advise the poster to gap the spark plugs again (and check the sp wiring order).

Engine technology has changed tremendously from 50 years ago. There wasn't any wastefire system in the 1950s.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top