Just went to change the leads in my Mk6 escort as the car splutters at 4k to 6k rpm, only to find oil sitting on top of plug 1. Took the plug out for a gander to see the plug was doused in oil, not good.

What are the pos causes for this??

any info much appreciated as always

Cheers

Mike

 

Ring wear and or guides/seal wear.
tabetha

 

Thanks.

wasnt sure whether it was a common zetec thing.

 

If there was oil on the outside of the plug before you removed it, then it is the r/c gasket gone, if bad enough it will cause arcing and a misfire, that will be disatrous and no doubt cause the syptoms you describe, ie fix the gasket and put new plugs in, but NOT BOSCH!!
Sorry got a bit confused, but re read question.
tabetha

 

Why not bosch plugs??

 

I bought 4 new BOSCH plugs for my mondy and within 100 miles it was playing up BIG time, coughing farting massive falt spots that varied all the time, worse when warmed up.
Tracked it down to the plugs, MASSIVE MASSIVE corona discharge about 1/2 long on them, two of them, other two ok, just can't beleive 50% failure rate, heard similar on these as well, found the std ford plugs to be best.
tabetha

 

As tabs said it's just your cam cover gasket. Easy peasy.

 

Ok, got round to changing the rocker cover gasket, and plugs......drove ok for a day, now seems even worse, wont accelerate above 4K rpm at anything over 1/4 throttle!!

MAF unplugged and exhaust de-catted so rules out both of them

Any other suggestions??

 

BTTT ~ Now missfiring, very rough idle and sounds like a machine gun any suggestions?? pos airleak if gasket not tight enough??

 

Up

 

are you getting a spark at the ht lead. zetecs can suffer from coil packs failing

 

Well iv changed all the spark plugs, all the gaps are correct also. Changed the leads and coil pack to that of my 1.8 si, known to be working. I changed the rocker cover again, incase i had miss torqued it or installed it wrong and it had created another leak, but that also seems ok.

so now im down to thinking it could be bottom end related. will test for compression when im back at work.

To give an indication, after changing the rocker gasket and plugs, the car ran sweet. then after a thrash, in 4th at over 80mph, something went and the car lost power and began to, what seems like a missfire as its like a machine gun type noise when accelerating. It now wont idle properly.

So......Help

 

unplug the mass air flow meter on the intake next to the airbox, then see if the problem has gone.

 

As stated in a previous post, i have the MAF unplugged and no cat fitted, so rules out both of them

Thanks anyway

 

BTTT

 

list all the parts you have changed,

have you had it plugged into a scanner yet??

 

Changed....rocker cover gasket twice, set of plugs, 2 dif set of leads, coil pack, unplugged MAF, No CAT fitted

Plugged in snap on scanner today, couldnt get a connection due to dodgy cable but will try again tmor

Will do a comp test also....and check the timing....

Any other options / pos causes??

 

why is your MAF disconnected, that could be the known fault, they are there for a reason, if thats not connected it cant tell the ecu how much air is being passed thro, this will make the car run very lean and spluttery, plug it back in, and disconnect the battery, leave for 10 mins or if ya want 30 mins, connect back up and start again, that could be your problem all along your MAF sensor, for a healthy running zetec engine it must have a working one otherwise miss-fires, loss of power will occur

 

Your close but your getting things the wrong way round. If the MAF is faulty then it will cause miss-firing and loss off power. In order to identify that it is the MAF at fault, you unplug it. If it runs better then you know its the MAF.
For your info, when unplugged, the ecu will account a base fuel map which in turn means the car will fuel more, not less like you suggest.

 

Try narrowing it down by unplugging the plug leads one by one, when/if you unplug one that makes no difference to the running of the engine then at least you have identified the cylinder/plug/lead ect that has the problem. Then do a compression test, change the plug, swap the lead ect. Process of elimination

 

zetecs are usually very good at not fouling plugs, but it sounds to me like worn piston rings

 

Yeh looks to be swaying this way unfort.....iv got 2 other engines on standbuy so its just a case of finding time to swap them over

 

not something silly like a sticky valve is it?

 

Could easy be, how would i go about identifying that without taking the head off??

Plan is to do fuel pressure check tmor pos change fuel filter as its overdue by the looks of it
Also check for vacuum leaks
Check and clean out breather hoses
Still need to do a comp test
Will test the coil pack with digimeter

Apart from that, i dont think theres much i havent tried