Car: 1991 Honda Accord

Problem: Oil level is dropping

Cause: I was thinking my valve cover gasket. The sparkplug wires are soaked, to the point that they drip. The engine has oil all over the top down by the thermostat. I am not 100% but I feel that it is the valve cover gasket.

Could a leaking valve cover gasket cause that much oil to leak. I had to put in about half a quart. My oil pressure light kept coming on at idle.

 

Yes. A valve cover gasket can leak a lot of oil. Clean it and watch while it runs. Or, check it VERY often. Or, put some UV dye in the oil. You won't have to clean it off if you use UV dye. Just make sure you use the glasses with the UV light.

I prefer UV dye.

Other methods are to clean it and apply a leak trace powder. This is ok as long as what you put it on is completely clean and dry, which is hard to do if the parts are completely soaked with oil.

 

I already cleaned it with brake clean and it came from right behind the distributor and right above the temperature sensor, pretty much all on the left side of the valve cover. Only the #3 sparkplug is dripping in oil, the other spark plugs just have enough to say that oil is there. The oil does burn off of the engine casing. At night if you look you can see it, when I first saw it I thought it was anti-freeze, but after further review it was oil.

 

Gravity pulls oil toward the ground. The highest point you see oil is likely the source of the leak.

 

Sounds like you might just change the dizzy, valve cover gasket, spark plug gaskets