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Hello everyone. Not sure if I’m posting this in the correct spot or not.This is going to be a long one but I want you to know everything that got me where I am. Any help is really welcomed and greatly appreciated! My wife drives the Focus which is tapping 140k on the odometer . Here’s some history… I’ve always kept up with oil changes (full synthetic only) , air filter , checking her brakes etc. I replaced the spark plugs 18 months ago and last year it leaked coolant from one of the heater hoses and she overheated it.( I didn’t realize how much she over heated it) I replaced both hoses went ahead and changed out the coolant as well.
I’m 57 and developed back problems so I started taking it to a shop here that lets me bring my own oil and filter so I don’t have to climb under the car. They where also supposed to be inspecting it each time. This is the only time I ever drive the car.
I got in it and couple of weeks ago and pulled it around to my shop to make sure it would pass its yearly inspection. As soon as I started it I noticed a miss. Then when I pulled it into the driveway in front of my shop and hit the brakes I could hear them and feel them. Pulled the wheels and had to replace the rotors and brakes. Pop the hood and the valve cover gasket’s leaking. When I pulled the coil boots to check the spark plugs number one had a lot of dirt/debris in the well so I cleaned it out pulled the plug and it had gotten hot and blistered bad. My bad for not pulling them when the coolant had leaked right. I pulled the second boot and the well had oil in it along with debris. I cleaned it and pulled that plug. It didn’t look as bad as the first but it wasn’t pretty.
So I stopped there and ordered the brakes and rotors , new belts and tension pulley it was making noise. Ordered a complete new valve cover with gaskets , new coils , spark plugs too. I’m going to say I would have thought since she drove it every day she would have noticed it running bad and surely the brakes and said something. Especially since the check engine light was on and the brake warning had flashed which she saw and forgot to tell me.
Sorry for the Novel y’all.
My concern is I washed the engine so I could do the valve cover with out grime everywhere. I used a regular water hose to rinse and was carful. But I let it dry for a few days because I couldn’t get beck to it. When I finally got the old valve cover off I noticed a little spot of rust on one of the shafts but didn’t seem to be any water floating in the oil wells (is what I call them) but it looked grimy and the oil was darker than when I pulled the dipstick. It’s always looked new on the stick even when it was time for a change. So made no sense to me. I gently cleaned everything best as I could and really clean where the new gaskets where going to be. Put a dab of Rtv in the four spots as instructed. Liked to have never got the new cover over the two sensors by the timing chain. But got everything finger tight and torqued all 14 bolts at the low setting first then again at the final setting. Then started on the spark plugs and coils. Every well had dirt and grime in it and a couple had a little water surrounding the plug. (Valve cover gasket’s on the inside where completely shot) I keep an assortment of different q tip sizes for such things so I got out the water and blew out the dirt with a shot of air cleaning the wells best I could. Pulled the plugs and there was junk on the inside threads so I cleaned it up with the q tips.
This told me that there was dirt and junk in the engine if it got into the wells and water too. Oh all the plugs looked like they had gotten hot.
I have not started it yet because I want to at least change the oil and filter first.
Is there anything I can do to be sure I got all the debris and what ever water out of the engine? I thought about draining and pouring oil through it but that’s not going to help much. Is there anyway I can flush it? Or should I do the oil change and change it again in about 500 miles or so?
Again sorry so long but I wanted y’all to know everything plus I’m not happy with the situation. She’s driving my truck for now and probably hammering my brakes. I keep my truck spotless. You can eat off the engine.
Any replies about what to do about the engine would be greatly appreciated and tell me if I did something wrong.
I’m 57 and developed back problems so I started taking it to a shop here that lets me bring my own oil and filter so I don’t have to climb under the car. They where also supposed to be inspecting it each time. This is the only time I ever drive the car.
I got in it and couple of weeks ago and pulled it around to my shop to make sure it would pass its yearly inspection. As soon as I started it I noticed a miss. Then when I pulled it into the driveway in front of my shop and hit the brakes I could hear them and feel them. Pulled the wheels and had to replace the rotors and brakes. Pop the hood and the valve cover gasket’s leaking. When I pulled the coil boots to check the spark plugs number one had a lot of dirt/debris in the well so I cleaned it out pulled the plug and it had gotten hot and blistered bad. My bad for not pulling them when the coolant had leaked right. I pulled the second boot and the well had oil in it along with debris. I cleaned it and pulled that plug. It didn’t look as bad as the first but it wasn’t pretty.
So I stopped there and ordered the brakes and rotors , new belts and tension pulley it was making noise. Ordered a complete new valve cover with gaskets , new coils , spark plugs too. I’m going to say I would have thought since she drove it every day she would have noticed it running bad and surely the brakes and said something. Especially since the check engine light was on and the brake warning had flashed which she saw and forgot to tell me.
Sorry for the Novel y’all.
My concern is I washed the engine so I could do the valve cover with out grime everywhere. I used a regular water hose to rinse and was carful. But I let it dry for a few days because I couldn’t get beck to it. When I finally got the old valve cover off I noticed a little spot of rust on one of the shafts but didn’t seem to be any water floating in the oil wells (is what I call them) but it looked grimy and the oil was darker than when I pulled the dipstick. It’s always looked new on the stick even when it was time for a change. So made no sense to me. I gently cleaned everything best as I could and really clean where the new gaskets where going to be. Put a dab of Rtv in the four spots as instructed. Liked to have never got the new cover over the two sensors by the timing chain. But got everything finger tight and torqued all 14 bolts at the low setting first then again at the final setting. Then started on the spark plugs and coils. Every well had dirt and grime in it and a couple had a little water surrounding the plug. (Valve cover gasket’s on the inside where completely shot) I keep an assortment of different q tip sizes for such things so I got out the water and blew out the dirt with a shot of air cleaning the wells best I could. Pulled the plugs and there was junk on the inside threads so I cleaned it up with the q tips.
This told me that there was dirt and junk in the engine if it got into the wells and water too. Oh all the plugs looked like they had gotten hot.
I have not started it yet because I want to at least change the oil and filter first.
Is there anything I can do to be sure I got all the debris and what ever water out of the engine? I thought about draining and pouring oil through it but that’s not going to help much. Is there anyway I can flush it? Or should I do the oil change and change it again in about 500 miles or so?
Again sorry so long but I wanted y’all to know everything plus I’m not happy with the situation. She’s driving my truck for now and probably hammering my brakes. I keep my truck spotless. You can eat off the engine.
Any replies about what to do about the engine would be greatly appreciated and tell me if I did something wrong.
