Hi All,

I was getting ready to do an oil change on my car, 1990 Civic STD: ~154,000 miles, and was doing an inspection of the spark plugs when I noticed that there was a good deal of oil in my 3rd cylinder tube, the rest were nice and dry. I just changed out the tube seal gaskets for all cylinders about 4 months ago, changing the top seals in the valve cover and the ones under the rocker arms. The gaskets were all brand new, so I am a little concerned that in 4 months time one is leaking again. Is there anywhere else I should check for leaks? Also, I noticed that my oil level is at the minimum on the dip stick, but there are no oil leaks anywhere else.

 

Might be rings or valve guides/seals. Definitely being consumed if there's no leaks on the ground or visible leaks around the engine.

 

They might not have been installed correctly. Might need to try a second time. If the spark plug tubes have oil thats the only way oil can enter them...

 

Thank you very much for the replies. I looked up symptoms of leaking valve seals and luckily my car does not throw out any smoke when I start it in the morning and the idle is almost perfect. I will definitely install the valve cover gaskets again using new gaskets to see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks again, it is most appreciated!

 

^This, happened to me as well.


Also, did you replace your seals with OEM components from Honda or just generic?

 

I used generic. I believe the ones I used were from Autozone, Felpro brand.

 

I find most aftermarket parts for these old cars don't fit/work correctly. Give OEM a try.

 

Sometimes even a valve cover gasket can help with this.

 

It's either the upper valve cover tube seals (yellow), or the cam-cap o-rings (red) between the cam-caps & the head itself.

The cam-cap o-rings have two different part numbers you need. One will be a double o-ring that seals off the oil-feed port coming up from the block.

 

As an update, I went to the Honda Dealer and purchased OEM Valve cover seals last week. I installed them, along with doing an oil change on Saturday. After driving 150 plus miles, I checked the spark plug wires yesterday and did not notice any oil in the spark plug tubes. So far so good, but we'll see in another 2 -3 weeks if there is any oil building up. If there is oil in the spark plug tubes, I will have to get OEM Cam Cap O-Rings since I used generic ones when I last changed them.

Thanks for all the help and advice!