I have a 2000 civic DX hatch back that has oil on the plugs. I am not sure where it is coming from. I have it on all four plugs however the car does not smoke. I have heard that there is seals down at the bottom of the spark plug sleeves that sometimes leak and allow oil past and in the the spark plugs. Does anyone have any ideas? I recently did a compression test and I have decent compression on three out of four cylinders. Number four is extremely low. But there is almost little to no oil on this plug as well. I have started to notice oil pooling in the intake manifold and not sure where its coming from. Maybe its time for a ring job/rebuild? Thanks in advanced for any help here guys and gals.

 

valve cover spark plug seals

 

replaced yesterday, not the problem. still have mass amounts of oil on the plugs and very hard starts/no start unless i take the plugs out and spray carb clean on each one. Any ideas?

 

Any white smoke/loss of coolant? Could be headgasket...

 

No, no loss of coolant or white smoke or any smoke at all. Checked and drained the oil just to make sure and no water in the oil. I put some fresh oil in it and some Lucas oil full synthetic stablizer, to help thicken up the oil just a tad. and so far so good seems to not be as bad and starting up with out me having to pull the plugs and spray carb cleaner on each plug. I think I am gonna either do a full rebuild and re-ring or just slap in another d16y7 and sell this monstrosity.

 

there are seals under the rocker assembly as well

 

I just scanned through the manual and as far as I can tell the d16y7 does not have seals under the spark plug tubes. Check that you installed the spark plug tube to valve cover seals correctly. Possibly they need replacement.

 

You say on the plugs, but which part? The upper ceramic portion or the portion where the electrode is? Also you may need to retighten the cover bolts and make sure they haven't loosened up.

 

I assumed the oil was external to the combustion chamber because the car does not smoke, but that makes no sense if oil was pooling in the manifold which we can only assume to be intake and how do we know oil is pooling there? Maybe you have leaky valve seals or PCV problems but then why no smoke.

Error - does not compute.

We do need clearer information from the OP.

 

the only 3 ways oil could get to the spark plugs is by the valve cover spark plug hole seals, the valve stem seals, and the piston rings (which is unlikely)

typically oil being burned thru the rings or the stem seals would make ash on the plugs not oil

but, valve cover spark plug seals would get oil on the threads of the spark plugs not the electrode

tell us which part of oil is on the spark plug.

 

Its on the threads and electrode. No oil on the ceramic part. There is no oil in the tubes at all. I had thought that maybe there was seal down at the base of the tubes, and that is where it could have been leaking. but when I took the valve cover off it looks like they are fused to the head some how with no seals. there is also no oil in the tubes at all. Its just the spark plugs. When the car wouldn't start the first time I took a peak down in to the intake manifold threw the throttle body butterfly. There was a nice Pool of oil there. I clean it out with a rag at that time a little over 2 weeks ago and now its just barley starting to pool again.

 

I thought the same thing with the y7's, aren't there other seals in the head?

Different engine, but i think the y7 has them too?

 

No they are pressed in I believe. I think honda changed the design of head to delete the need for seals at the bottom end of the tubes. I have done a little bit of research and that picture is for the older style heads.

 

My mistake then, I've only completely taken apart a D15 head and was under the assumption they're similar, but good info!

And OP are they on the tip of the plug? If so it sounds like piston rings or valve seals.

 

Yeah The oil is on the tip of the plug.

A few weeks ago I was on the free way and my upper radiator hose blew and it instantly got hot but I pulled over immediately and had a local part store deliver me the upper radiator hose and some coolant. I did limp it a few hundred feet to an off ramp so I wouldnt get hit. I am wondering if this made the valve seals go bad?

 

I'd imagine you blew your headgasket/warped your head, valve seals going bad you'll get smoke on startup and after decelerating in gear down hills

 

No smoke, nothing. I had my wife stand at the back for start ups and nothing. I also had her stand back there while i gave it a little gas and nothing no smoke. If I blew the headgasket I would have signs right? I didnt thing that much oil could possible drop down the valve seals either... I am at a loss. Luckily I live close to Chico, CA. Home of rising sun motors. they will do a complete tear down and rebuild for less then $500. with a week turn around time.

 

Interesting I had a rad hose go bad, but I guess I didn't lose enough coolant and was able to drive to a shop, I just watch the gauge, this was in the spring.