Water in spark plug area

CAR: 1995 Accord as of 03/05/04 158K miles on chassis– with 1994 H22A – 60K approx. miles.

BACKGROUND: The car sat in a wrecking yard in Denver, CO for about 30 days without a hood. When the car was delivered to me in October of 2003 with 155K miles and there was some water on top of the valve (cylinder head) cover and water sitting on top of the spark plugs up to about the top of the spark plug wire contact. I just sucked out the water with a vacuum thinking it was just from sitting in the wrecking yard without a hood to protect it. Since that date I have a CF hood and everything has been fine up until last week.

PROBLEM: 3K miles later - Last week my car started hesitating like there was a loose spark plug wire. I immediately checked my Magnacor spark plug wires to make sure they were on tight and hadn’t come loose. They were fine. I pulled the spark plug wires and water has now re-appeared on top of all 4 spark plugs to the top of the contact in the spark plug holes. (See pictures below.) 

I re-vacuumed out the holes thinking maybe some heavy rains we’ve had lately worked water up into the spark plug holes while I was driving but I couldn’t figure out how water would make it past the spark plug wire cover which pretty much seals around the spark plug holes.

I then drove it to work for about 70 miles round trip and it was sunny and everything worked fine until just about returning home I felt a hesitation in 2nd gear. I pulled the spark plug wire covers again and noticed a very small trace of water in the spark plugs holes but not near as much as last time. There are no visible cracks inside the cylinder head and there is no water leaking into the holes.

TROUBLESHOOTING: I would think if I had a coolant leak the water would look green? It looks clear so I’m not sure if it’s possible to have a coolant leak in the spark plug hole areas - especially in all 4 holes? Does anyone know of a way like a broken gasket that would allow this to happen? I’m looking at my Helms manual trying to figure it out but can’t seem to see how this would happen? See pics below and let me know your thoughts.

That’s water sitting in the spark plug hole all the way up to about the top of the spark plug contact in the cylinder head.

All 4 plug holes had water almost up to the spark plug contact. Above the holes on top of the cover didn’t have water but did have some grease which I hadn’t had a chance to clean until now.

You can see how the magnacor spark plug wires make a nice seal that would prevent most water from ever getting down inside the spark plug holes. Plus there is a plastic cover that covers all 4 plugs and wires.

Here’s how I vacuumed out the water. I have a computer vacuum hose with a very small nozzle. I used normal clear packing tape and attached that hose to my shop vac which worked nicely.

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