Water in top of cylinder head

[duncanda]

Hi. Hope someone can help.

I have a 1.25 zetec engine and I changed the spark plugs a couple of days ago and noticed a little oil sitting in the top of the cylinder head. I cleaned it up. Wife used the car for a couple of days and said eveything okay. I changed the oil today, took it for test drive and felt it was firing on 3.5 cylinders. Took plastic cover off cylinder head cover and noticed water (yes water), about 150ml sitting in the top of the cylinder head between plugs 3 and 4, obviously shorting the plugs. Cleaned up water and after a 10 minute drive, water has reappeared. How's it getting into the top of the cylinder and what's the cause? Appreciate your ideas.

[duncanda]

After closer inspection coolant water is seeping up through the centre of what must be a core plug in the top of the cylinder head. It's a core plug with a 14mm-15mm hex centre. Hopefully I can extract and replace it?

[crash]

After closer inspection coolant water is seeping up through the centre of what must be a core plug in the top of the cylinder head. It's a core plug with a 14mm-15mm hex centre. Hopefully I can extract and replace it?

good luck with that mate ...... i haven't seen that happen myself ..... doesn't sound like an easy job

[duncanda]

Got the replacement core plug (£1.39), but couldn't remove the old one . Twisted out of shape the 1/2" extender bar I used, bought a stronger one and still couldn't budge it. Decided to buy some Evo-Stik Hard & Fast metal epoxy putty and pushed it into the hole and it appears to work. For your info if you ever need to try to remove these core plugs, you need a 15mm hex key and more musle than me.