99 Cobra oil in spark plug welds

[DarkRattle]

So i went to change the coil packs and spark plugs today, as soon as I removed the coil pack the whole well was filled with oil, the boot of the coil pack was soggy like a sponge and I couldnt even see the spark plug.... What the heck? Is this a leak? I hope this aint gonna be expensive if someone could tell me what this is. How is the coil pack even working with the oil in there, maybe that's why my gas mileage has been so terrible?

 

[3B99SVT]

Leaking spark plug grommets. Hopefully only on the passenger side since the driver side cam cover is a pain to remove. Not sure if it affects gas mileage -- my mileage wasn't affected when I had a leaking grommet.

 

[98 svt]

^^^
What he said.
Spark plug gaskets. They are small "O" rings that seal up the spark plug hole at the cam cover/head.
Use a few small dabs of silicon to keep the gaskets in place. The driver's side isn't that much harder to do, and I'd do them all at once (driver and passenger side). It's a gasket kit you buy from Ford

 

[DarkRattle]

Leaking spark plug grommets. Hopefully only on the passenger side since the driver side cam cover is a pain to remove. Not sure if it affects gas mileage -- my mileage wasn't affected when I had a leaking grommet.

is this an important thing to fix? I doubt I can do this myself and I'm damn sure it'll be atleast $250 for labor.

 

[98 svt]

It's not hard to do yourself, it's like changing a valve cover gasket.

 

[DarkRattle]

It's not hard to do yourself, it's like changing a valve cover gasket.

isn't the driver side a bitch though? I have to change both sides.

 

[01yellercobra]

The driver side sucks. I dropped the K member about an inch and moved the master cylinder to get room. It still required some wiggling to get the valve cover out.

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[DarkRattle]

The driver side sucks. I dropped the K member about an inch and moved the master cylinder to get room. It still required some wiggling to get the valve cover out.

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man what a bummer :/ I think I'm honestly going to sell the car because of this, don't have the $ to fix this rn.

 

[01yellercobra]

man what a bummer :/ I think I'm honestly going to sell the car because of this, don't have the $ to fix this rn.

Take a step back and think things over before making a decision you'll regret. Is the car your daily? The driver side is probably a solid days worth of work. Mine isn't my daily so I was able to spread it out over about a week for both sides.

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[DarkRattle]

Take a step back and think things over before making a decision you'll regret. Is the car your daily? The driver side is probably a solid days worth of work. Mine isn't my daily so I was able to spread it out over about a week for both sides.

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It is a daily, but I'm not mechanically inclined at all so there's no way I'm doing this. + My tires are gone so $600 for that + $500 to fix this is too much.

 

[98 svt]

My 98 had the same problem and the drivers side was just as simple as the passenger side. You just need to finagle it just right to slide it past the brake booster/res.
Don't sell your car over it. It's not a serious fix.

 

[01yellercobra]

My 98 had the same problem and the drivers side was just as simple as the passenger side. You just need to finagle it just right to slide it past the brake booster/res.
Don't sell your car over it. It's not a serious fix.

Must be something different on the 96-98. There's no way to finagle the driver side without moving some things around. Was the same story on my 01.

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[DarkRattle]

My 98 had the same problem and the drivers side was just as simple as the passenger side. You just need to finagle it just right to slide it past the brake booster/res.
Don't sell your car over it. It's not a serious fix.

decided to keep it and fix it, that glorious 32v v8 rumble is too much of a music to my ears to sell.

 

[01yellercobra]

decided to keep it and fix it, that glorious 32v v8 rumble is too much of a music to my ears to sell.

Good to hear. Worse comes to worse bribe a couple friends with beer for support.

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[DSG2003Mach1]

If you cant do it yourself Id say find someone local on this forum or find a local mustang club, probably somebody that would be willing to do it for basically beer money vs $100+/hr at a dealer

 

[DarkRattle]

If you cant do it yourself Id say find someone local on this forum or find a local mustang club, probably somebody that would be willing to do it for basically beer money vs $100+/hr at a dealer

I'll give it a go myself, what's the worst that can happen right? haha

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

I'll give it a go myself, what's the worst that can happen right? haha

at this point Id say worst case is probably you still have oil leaks when your done lol. Make sure you pay attention to where RTV needs to be applied where the valve cover meets the timing cover and make sure nothing can drop in the spark plug wells while youre working

 

[zeus201]

Must be something different on the 96-98. There's no way to finagle the driver side without moving some things around. Was the same story on my 01.

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I agree, there was no way I could have finagled the driver side out. We ended up disconnecting the brake booster from firewall which gave us uninterrupted access.

OP - I ordered all of gaskets and seals through our site vendor Autonation. We pay 10% above cost and highly recommend going with them.

 

[RX1Cobra]

You'll be OK man; it's really not hard at all. Here's a decent right up on it. It's for an 03 but should be pretty close to the same. https://www.svtperformance.com/forums/threads/valve-cover-removal.677968/

I pulled the heads off of a 99 with the motor still in the car. Had it done in a day or two.

 

[98 svt]

I'll give it a go myself, what's the worst that can happen right? haha

That's a great attitude. Go attack it broseph. Head to your local dealer and order a spark plug gasket set. Be sure to do both sides. Maybe do the passenger side first, to learn on.
As mentioned above, don't forget the RTV by the timing cover.