water in spark plug well, fiesta 1.4 zetec

[fourpointsixgt]

Discovered above after the engine warning came on, was starting to get a bit juddery when accelerating, ok when cold and warming up, performance suffers when the engine's up to temp, not had the car long, I've checked the coolant for any unusual slime etc and that seems ok, whipped out the plugs which had brown rusty powder around the threads, and noticed water in the well, not much, but enough for me to think it has got something to do with the engine light staying on, it's a '52 plate 1.4, with 60k on the clock. Any clues? car only cost 1300 quid but in great nick.

[Locknut]

It's a common-enough problem. That's rain water that's getting in and it can cause a mis-fire, which of course is the roughness you feel. It probably needs new spark plugs at the present mileage, so clean it up, fit new plugs and check the coil pack.

[Sardonicus]

Check the Allen headed style screw in core plugs x2 these can rot through and weep into that valley they can be purchased from Ford and are normally very tight dry the valley out use the car for a couple of weeks and check again