Never worked on a honda, so I'm going to try and do this the right way the first time around, and not be screwed in the end game. I got the valve cover off, and I'm looking at I guess what people call "rocker assembly" photo is attached.

It's a 91 Honda CRX Si, four cylinder, D15 motor.
In the valve for the sparkplugs, one the driver side (1?) There was oil on the tip of the spark plug, only on the tip. The same thing in the third, and then there was a small amount of water in the fourth plug.

The car ran fine, sounded a bit off, and would bog down. I've looked it up somewhat, the oil on the sparkplugs bit, what I can tell peopel say replace the rubber grommets on the valve cover.

I know water on the sparkplug would typically mean a blown headgasket, right?

But I was thinking since the oil was only on the tip of the sparkplug, I need to replace the seals that are actually down at the bottom of the valves... Now I have no earthly idea how to go about this. I saw on a previous post something about removing the rocker assembly? Could it still possibly be the upper seals on the valve cover? I'm pretty positive it's the lower ones though. Do I really have to remove the whole damn assembly, because I have no idea how to go about this.. If someone could explain i'd be awesomely grateful.

Also, with the blown head gasket, shouldn't there be water under the valve cover? And shouldn't there be water in the oil itself? the oil had no water/metal flakes what so ever, and was just burned to hell. Under the valvecover as you'll see with the pic, there's no water in the oil anywhere, could it of just been condensation? There wasn't much actually water in it, like it wasn't pooled or anything, and there was coolant in the radiator and not water...

Sorry about the long post, but I gotta get this thing done right. And jsut trying to be detailed as possible with this.

 

Well first off your problem definately doesnt sound like a blown head gasket. This can't cause water/coolant to get into the top of the plugs. You definately need to replace the 4 top gaskets for the plugs on the valve cover. The "bottom" seals you're refering to are your valve stem seals. These will also not cause oil to get into the topside of your plugs, rather they would make oil get into your combustion chamber and cause your car to smoke (blue smoke). If you see alot of white smoke then you have a blown head gasket. If you arent sure what you're doing then I really doubt you have the right tool to replace your valve seals on your own anyhow. You would have to pressurize the cylinder with air to keep your valve from falling down then remove the rocker arms, then remove your valve springs with another special tool, THEN you could replace the seals. But, like I said this is 99.99999% positive not your problem. Go to the parts store grab a new valve cover gasket kit (should come with the valve cover gasket, 4 spark plug gaskets, and even new gold oringed washers for the valve cover nuts) and put it on. DO NOT use any RTV with any of it, it is not required nor is it good for it. As for your bogging I highly doubt it's related to the leak but it's possible that it's on your plug tips creating resistance and giving you weak spark.

 

just to clearify uhm when I say tip of the plug, I mean the electrode side, on the threads mainly, i'm not sure if it was actually on the electrode because it took us a minute to actually get the plugs out of those damn stems. Thank you for the quick reply, and no, I don't have anything to pressurize the motor, I do have an air compressor, but I'd have no idea how to go about it, and hopefully, the way you make it sound i shouldn't have to worry about it. Yeah, there was no blue, or white smoke to my knowledge.

I'm about to go to the parts store now and pick up a gasket set, and some new plugs+oil and oil filter.

Let me know if the oil would be on the threads of the sparkplug(maybe on the electrode as well) with those grommet pieces? That's the reason I thought it was coming from the lower end. Again, thank you so much for the quick reply man.

 

Well then this changes things.....we were talking about different tips......If you have oil on the electrode then it's either the valve seals or your head gasket. But if you have no white smoke and no bubbles in your oil then it's probably not your head gasket. However you should be having SOME type of blue smoke from your exhaust. Most likely just at wide open or hard throttle.

 

well we just replaced the gasket set you were talking about, i'm about to crank it over after we flush the nasty old oil out and get coolant in it. once i get it running i'll open it up to see if we have any odd coloured smoke coming out. when i was driving behind him yesterday, i didn't notice anything.

 

all that came out was white smoke out the exhaust, and only when it was at about 4500 rpm. It wasn't continuous, it' come out in a puff and then it'd be clear.

Checked the spark plugs there wasn't much oil on the threads, but it looked like the old oil.

if the valve fell down could i just retime it? i'm not sure what you mean. i've never really seen the internals of a honda motor..

 

yeah need new valve gasket..

 

Check the water consumption, obviously if you're using it then it's easier leaking or being burned away. The white smoke you saw could just be condensation in the exhaust.

If you drop a valve you have to pull the head off to be able to get it again. It literally falls into the combustion chamber.