So I just got a 91 honda civic lx. Old car but I'm trying to learn some things. I have smoke coming from the tail pipe and oil in the spark plug wells. Going to change valve gasket cover spark plugs and spark plug wires. Does this sound right to Do?

 

Yes, a good place to start to remedy oil in the spark plug tubes, however doubtful that those will improve the smoking coming from the tail pipe. How many miles on the car? If the smoke looks/smells like burning oil, it is likely oil is getting into the cylinders, but not through the spark plug tubes. Could be getting past the rings or past the valve guides/seals.

 

Replace your PCV while your at it. It is usually the reason the valve cover starts to leak.

 

a stuck pcv valve can also make it burn oil like a pig.

 

Step one is replace the PCV and valve cover grommets. If that doesn't fix the problem, step 2 is much more involved. You need to replace the 4 spark-plug-tube o-rings between the head and the cam caps by removing the complete rocker assembly. It can be done without removing the timing belt, cam-gear, distributor or head, but you ABSOLUTELY need a valve-adjustment afterward.

As long as you don't REMOVE the cam-cap bolts, the 80+ parts that make up the rocker assembly will stay together as one unit.

You should be able to see where the leak is coming from looking down into the spark-plug-tubes. If oil is coming from the top, then it should be a valve-cover-seal. If it's coming from only halfway down, then it's a cam-cap o-ring.