extreme hesitation and rough running on 98 prizm

[BladeX10]

I washed the engine yesterday, ran fine on the 10 min drive i did last night, now this morning i go to drive the car and when i tried to accelerate,the car just lost all its power and was shaking and hesitating, drove it for alittle while more to see if it went away and it ran fine for 20 mins, then i go to park and the car is missing and idling extremely rough, almost wasnt driveable but had to get home so i drove it and it eventually smoothed out as i was driving but was still very noticeable as i accelerated at any speed and the check engine light was blinking on and off and when i parked, it went away. Im not familiar with these engines so give me some pointers.

[sarsman45]

.....I'll take a stab.

What did you use to wash your engine and how did you go about washing? Liquid may have found a way into the engine through cracks in the system (vacuum pipes, leaky valve covers/seals, etc).

[BladeX10]

Just some degreaser and a garden hose, it ran and drove fine after i took it out that night, thats why im stumped

[BladeX10]

I discovered water in the 2 tunnels that surround the wires for sensors, one is the lower sensor that goes into the thottle body, and water in the tunnel for one of the alternator plugs. Also some alittle water on the 3rd spark plug. Cleaned it all up and it seems to be doing alittle better. IDK if what i did helped it or it just got better on its own.

Also i removed the plugs and discovered they where these [img]https://www.beemershop.com/catalog/images/spark%20plugs%20R12-%20bmw-301.jpg[img]

Never even seen them before but they look old and im replacing them tomorrow.

[sarsman45]

did you just spray the whole car down? There are places where liquid is not supposed to touch.

[Bennie]

The blinking "check engine" light is indicating you have a misfire. I would guess that water got through the spark plug boots on the valve cover. The easiest wat to fix that it pull each boot off and blow compressed air down there until it seems dry. Everything should go back to normal when it dries out again.

[BladeX10]

Well its running alot better now.. There is still a bogging/hesitation when you accelerate harder than usual but thats most likely another unrelated issue. Threw a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank and going to change the plugs later with some basic standard ones since they look old and the previous owner doesnt remember the last time he changed them in his 10 years of ownership.