Hi, my friends car has been haunting me for the last few weeks. After fixing the whole cooling system (pump, t-stat, few hoses), the car died while driving. this was several days later btw. cold weather was my initial thought as we got a cold spell for a week, with below freezing conditions. he had for a while only been running water and it had froze a few times. after we fixed all that, it was running well, and seemed to be ok. then it died in an intersection, runnin very rough. like hydrolocking rough. not sure if that term is correct, but like gas was clogging/flooding the pistons and no spark was able to ignite, or it just wasnt firing on4 or more pistons. (lol).I tried testing spark after getting to the rig and trying to start it. at first no spark (still30 degreesoutside). cranked it over and wouldnt get aspark at all.came back the next day, shoveled it out, and pulled the coil, tested ok. cap and rotor were shot, replaced. evidence of spark getting to the cap (new burn spots on inside cap points). so i pull all the plugs and they were all soaked with fuel. ran the engine over without eec or fuel pump and pumped out the fuel in the pistons (wich was not much at). checked out ICM and is ok. hall stator inside distributer has worn down the pickup on all the teeth evenly, no wobble that is noticable. not sure if the HES is bad. Ive checked #1 cylinder at TDC and is pretty much right on the 0' mark pointing at 1 in cap, didnt have it warmed up, just lined it all up by hand cold. that seems ok. im fairly knowledgeable with cars and have worked in several shops off and on over the years, but im not sure if im heading in the right direction. I want to think that something with the cold messed up the gaskets and is flooding. Its fuel injected, so im not sure if that would be the case. i havnt changed the oil to see if there is gas in it. Im about to rent a compression kit and check the cylinders for any cracks or blown gaskets. Sorry for rambling, i guess id like to know if there is something else that could be making the car run so rough. Can the HES alone give those symptoms? im not sure if the pickup is too worn or what is normal wear on those. the plugs are all fairly new, but as the cap and rotor were fairly shot, may need to replace those as well with wires. ill test each one again on a cranking test to see if the spark is getting there. i havnt tested fuel pressure, but a good amount of pressure is on the fuel rail, im guesing its enough. i feel stupid now re-reading this, as i havnt checked the wires or plugs, as my friend has told me they are new. i am now suspicious. could the HES send a faulty signal resulting in the fuel injector to open at the wrong time? ugh. i will start agian, ill go check all the wires for spark. any insight would be greatly appreciated. i will repost as i find more.

 

Um yeah. Im a noob, Its a 1993 ford thunderbird with the 5.0 HO.

 

Yeah, you're a boob alright. First off ya' ja***ss GM lover - the thunderbird (as if you know what that is) has the head of an eagle - you know - the kind of bird that would kindly rip you up as a source of food. Next - dumbass - you likely fractured/cracked the cylinder block or heads. Any idiot mechanic knows never to add water to a cooling system in winter -it expands when it freezes and the frozen hydraulic pressure can easily crack any block/heads ever made. Also if you're so knowledgeable you'd know that firing occurs before TDC.Read a book and try again. Early 90's Ford distributors have an ignition module on the distributor which like any computer can fail (especially after 15/16 years) preventing firing while the fuel system still dumps its fuel. Replacing the cap and rotor will help this not happen again so soon - but the distributor ignition module may need replaced first.