I own a 90 Honda Accord DX as a daily driver so that I dont have to drive my camaro in the winter. I have noticed that at certain RPM's it feels very "disconnected" and stutters. So this past weekend when i was changing the oil, I decided to pull the plug caps to see if anything obvious was wrong. All the plugs are tight, so that isnt the issue.

What i did come across is that when pulling all of the plug caps (since the plugs sit recessed into the block) on three of them, the "tube" that slips over the spark plug had a small amount of oil on them. And on one of them (second from the passenger side) it was completely bone dry.

1. I was wondering if the small amount of oil on the other three is normal?
2. Is the one that is bone dry the one that is causing the stutter or miss?

Im not used to working on imports. I hate even doing my electrical on my camaro. Anything else i am pretty knowledgable about. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

there's only 2 ways that oil can get into the sparkplug tube/wells. spilling thru towards the top (bad tube seals) or seaping thru the bottom (bad o-rings). the first can be fixed by opening up the valve cover. the second problem is harder to fix...

im not sure if that'd cause stuttering though. it's definately a problem with the top of the engine tho. maybe coilpack or plugwires?

 

But why is one of them completely dry?

And the oil is not IN the tube, its on the outside. The plugs are not coated in oil at all.

 

Anybody??? Dont want this to become a HUGE problem that i dont wanna fix since the car was a cheap purchase.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Defcon2030 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it's definately a problem with the top of the engine tho. maybe coilpack or plugwires?</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats where i'd go. i woudlnt worry bout a lil oil. i mean, as long as its not burning it.
maybe the dist?
fuel injection cleaner?

try the simple stuff first b4.

 

If the oil is on the part inside the tube (under the cap that covers the hole on top of the engine) then either the valve cover tube seals or the orings are leaking. The one that is dry is the only good one. If the oil leaks into the tube enough, it will short the plug and make the engine run bad. There is no way the oil got on the wire without getting on the plug too. Did you pull the plugs out? They will probably have oil on the part that the socket fits on. You cannot see it on the plugs unless you take them out. This problem will only get worse. You need to fix it or get it fixed.

 

how involving is this job with the o-rings? or costly? any rough figures? I didnt pay much for the car to begin with. So, if it is really involving... i may just say screw it. Ill have to take a look at it this weekend.

Guess i will try takin it to a mechanic to see how much it will be.

 

Here is a link on what is involved. It's a pretty long process. Setting valves is the hardest part to me. You could just try changing the four seals under the valve cover, and see if that solves the leak. If that doesn't work, then it's decision time.

http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/sh...+tube

 

Wow... thanks BLKFLSH. I really hope it is just the seals. That would be ten times easier.

 

You guys said that the seal or the o-rings needs to be replaced, but what kind of o-rings? is it the fuel injection o-rings? or something else?

 

my car has the same problem, i pull the wires out of the engine and notice lots of oil all over the wires and inside from the 1st 3 plugs and the 4th one was dry. I had the valve cover gasket done back in april 2004 by a mechanic. Do you guys think it was a poor installation of the valve cover gasket?

 

if yours is still doing it, i doubt that the valve cover gasket was done wrong. Might be the worse scenario they have been talkin about.

I can only hope mine isnt.