Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Over heated Zetec

Hi Everyone,
While I was gone my daughters car overheated and was blowing steam from under the hood. It has been sitting now for about 2.5 months. I raised the hood to see what I could find. For one, the car has no compression! and when I pulled the plug wires to get to the plugs #1 & 2 were swimming in old rusty water. Could this be caused by a blown head gasket? To me it sound like a cracked head! But there is no evidence of water in the oil at all. They did say that the coolant they put into the reserve tank would just be consumed. They just couldn't tell me where it came out. I know there is someone out there that has had this problem too. If not I am not wishing it on anyone... hahaha

Greg

Not sure if your just looking for sympathy (i.e., misery loves company) or a how-to-proceed.

Blown head gasket and/or warped head means removing head for inspection. Depending on car condition and mileage you may wish to consider replacing with used engine.

I think I am looking for both sympathy and assistance. haha I am looking for help trying to diagnosis this. can't figure out why the sparkplugs were swimming in water? could the head have cracked that high up? Also, I am looking to see how much of a self-help task this is. I have torn into alot of things but everytime I open the hood on this car I cringe. I priced a new head gasket with the hope that this would be problem. Not sure I want to tackle it. Could it be easier to just drop the motor and swap it out?

Greg

Re-reading your post, was water in the cylinders or simply in the recesses surrounding the plugs? If the latter that could simply be remnants from boiling coolant being released from reservoir. Also, how did you determine no compression?
Description of actual circumstances surrounding overheating might help one suggest probable cause and/or likely damage, if any.

Well I had to sop up all the water sorounding the plugs. When I pulled the plugs I could see the tops of the pistons and they looked alittle wet and the plugs were alittle wet. Like I said, it has been sitting for a couple of months. I have not checked compression correctly, I just noticed that when you try cranking the motor it just spins as though there weren't any plugs in the cylinders.

I am leaning torwards pulling the head off and checking to see what I can find. The we my daughter discribed the problem was that water would just empty out of the reservoir as you poured it in. ????? Makes me think Head gasket... But she didn't notice any water or steam coming from the tail pipe.

Greg