Degreased SHO engine now slo reaction time and idles bad! help

[Sho'nOff1994]

hey whats up...i got a 1994 sho and i degreased my engine and rinsed it off. Now my car is slow, it idles low, when accelerating it takes forever to react, and the engine shakes and sounds like a go cart when reving the engine...took it to pepboys and autozone but they werent any help...pep boys gave me a can of stuff that waterproofs ignition wires, spark plugs and everything else....but that didnt work...then autozone said there may be water in the coils or sparkplug boots...they said just drive it hard and the water will evaporate...but its been 4 or 5 days and it still runs like that...i have no idea what is wrong...I dont know if this has anything to do with it but a couple weeks before i degreased the engine, when i would put my car in park the engine would idle low and sometimes would shut off..but i dont think that has anything to do with the problem i have now...cus ironically this all happened right after i degreased and washed my engine...if anyone can help that would be great....I need the car fixed soon because i am about to drive from arizona to georgia...and dont want to make the trip while its doing it...thanks...

[shorod]

I would suspect that you got water in the spark plug wells. This was a pretty common occurance on the V-6 SHOs, especially if you have aftermarket spark plug wires. There were a lot of instances of non-OEM plug boots being slightly taller than the factory/OEM style and they didn't seal tightly against the valve cover. Pull all 6 of the plug wires from the plug wells and use compressed air to spray out any moisture and dust, etc.

Also, check for oil in the plug wells. This is also common. If there is oil in there, you will eventually need to replace the valve cover gaskets and plug well seals, and it would be wise to replace the plug wires at the same time.

Did you pressure wash the engine, or just use a hose? If you pressure washed, then you will also want to check for vacuum lines that have been forced off as well as connectors that may have been blown off.

Check the connector at the Mass AirFlow (MAF) sensor as well since if the MAF is unplugged, it could cause similar issues to what you describe.

-Rod