Does anyone know of a diagram showing the cooling passages in a 4.6L V8, specifically the driver's side of the '97 mustang GT version where the head and intake manifold meet?
I think I found the cause of the misfire on my '97 GT... cylinders 6,7,8 if I have the numbers right (driver's side) have the spark plug wells flooded. The fluid in 8 was rather viscous like oil... but smelled like coolant to me. 6 and 7 are clearly coolant. Now this of course had to come from the outside and leak it's way down into the spark plug wells past the spark plug boots. (something would have asploded if it came out past the plug threads) This seems to be an obvious cause for the intermittent strange noise and loss of power on acceleration and misfire. Idle and cruise are fine... even stabbing the throttle in netural is perfect.
There is a small loss of coolant but not a lot, nothing all that unusual for me to need to top it off. Appearances of the grime seem to indicate this has been a slow seepage, where the the coolant kind of boils down to into a thicker mass or picks up a little oil. In any case..
My guess is that the coolant is leaking from the intake manifold or manifold gasket on to the head between the intake manifold and the valve cover. Given the way the engine sits, it seeks it's level filling from the back first. There is what appears to be a path of fluid that runs down from the area by #8 down into the valley at the back of the engine.
There hasn't been any overheating... engine got a bit warmer than normal in traffic over the summer a couple of times but changing out the radiator hoses made that go away. What I mean by warmer than normal is that instead of the needle being on M, it got to the far side of A. It's been staying on M since then.
Basically I need a diagram showing where the coolant in the area flows. I don't want to risk that it is leaking from a point where it could get sucked into the engine. If it's just leaking externally I can take some measures to avoid the spark plug wells from flooding and be on my way and fix the issue later provided it's just a weeping gasket to the outside of the engine.
I have some suspicion that it may be coming from the thermostat housing, but how the clyinder next to it remained dry tends to negate that. but there is some indication that coolant has flowed away from that area in both forward and down and to the rear of the engine.
Thanks in advance for any help or insights...