...I have a question that may cheese some people because it is not Maverick related, but it is Ford engine related. Here goes... ...I have an old Galaxie, it hasn't been started in a while, not since 1987, long story short I had it running and it seemed to be missing when you brought the RPMs up a little, and it wasn't a stuck valve or anything. Well, I don't have a radiator in it and I had a hose stuck in the water intake, then I happened to notice that as the water hit the #1 plug it was shooting back out of that area( The plugs were a bear to get out! And I found water, (fresh) in there after I washed the engine with the plugs in it. Compression leak? This is my question? Anyone got ideas how to fix it?
I would have moved this post to the off topic section but you have less tahn 10 posts and it could apply to Mavericks.
Unfortunatley, I believe Jamie is probably right. A compression check on all the cylinders would confirm it. Also, you might want to check the oil. There's probably water in it too. If that's the case, I wouldn't even worry about doing a compression check. For your sake, I hope it's NOT a blown head gasket. Good luck and keep us posted.
Last one I had like that turned out to be a intake gasket sucking water in. It filled the #8, I didn't know it had filled during a rain one night. I had suspected a vacuum leak before, but never imagined what happend. So I wake up to go to work, crank the engine only to lock and bend yhe rod. During my diagnonis of what just happened I removed the plugs and sure enough CLEAR WATER came out of the cylinder. When I took the intake off there was a small rusty line where the intake gasket had a small crack line in it (I'm going back memory lane telling this ) That is when I decided to get the heads worked and ported/polished. So what i'm actually trying to say here is inspect your gaskets as you tear down and be verry careful going back together, good luck
Or a cracked head or maybe even a block, possibly a leaking intake gasket. Either way it sounds as if you'll have to take the head off. Look for traces of coolant staining from a water jacket to the cylinder on the gasket or on the surface of the block or the head, if nothing shows up there, get the head pressure tested. Hopefully this is as far as you'll have to go. Good luck.
If it is a 390 I would say it is a bad head gasket. But, like others have advised. You really know nothing until you do a compression test. But, all is not bad. I have had long dormant engines do crazy stuff like that. After change of fluids and a good heat cycle, things tend to get better. Maybe you will get lucky. Model A engines will tend to seep coolant down into the crankcase via the #7 head bolt if the weather gets extremely cold. Mine has done that. Many of model A owners have torn their engines down when they didnt have to. Dan
I understand what you all are saying, but the leak was quite definately coming from the spark plug hole? And thank you all for your quick responses!
You are going to have to pull the intake and probably the head that was leaking to find the problem. If it had water in it and it froze you could have cracked the cylinder letting water into the cylinder during the intake stroke. If the plug was tight the water may have breeched the seals and the pressure pushed it out between the porceline and metal case. Your problem is not the spark plug - your problem is where that water is coming from. Once you find that out, you can decide whether it can be repaired or you might have to replace the engine. Nobody can say for sure until it comes apart.
