so I'm trying to figure out what's causing a lean condition on my h22a. Changed plugs today and there is oil on them...well one of them and it seemed like a lot to me...I tried searching and Fomr what I read it's usually the valve cover gasket, but could this also be caused by a toasted valve? And couldn't that cause a lean condition? Here's a pic of the plugs.

 

It can also be caused by over filling your engine with oil and leaks past your piston rings.

 

In my Chilton Manual it says


"An Oil Fouled Spark plug indicates an engine with worn piston rings and/or bad vavle seals allowing excessive oil to enter the chamber."

 

my guess would be the sprark plug grommets. they are easily replaced by pulling the valve cover and cost about 2.00 bucks. you can use http://www.slhondaparts.com to see a pic and get the part number. check these first as these are most likely the culprit.

 

I just remember when My hg went bad on my Acura, the spark plug looked like yours on the left.

 

thanks all...i'm gonna try the gromets first..I've been following the best cams for n/a thread and it's got me thinking about doing something to the head but I'm not ready yet so I hope the gromets do it.
Also if I had bad rings wouldn't I be smoking all the time?


Modified by ernestoG at 6:08 PM 2/26/2004

 

i doubt it will the be the valve cover grommets because the top part of the plugs would be covered with oil not the bottom

possibly causes:
piston rings
valve guides
valve stem seals
headgasket

do a compression and leakdown test and see what numbers you get. that might lead you to the problem a lil better

David

 

well when i first got the car, the no.4 spark plug looked exactly like the furthest one in on his pic. i replaced the grommet and the problem was fixed.

it is a fairly common problem, as most people don't replace them everytime they pull the valve cover off, like honda suggests. **** i know your supposed to and still don't, i just replace them as needed

 

one way to tell if its the valve cover grommets is to look down the spark plug holes and see if theres oil in them. if not then i doubt its the grommets because it is impossible for oil to get into the combustion chamber via the valve cover grommets. if the grommets are leaking then there will be oil inside the holes and on the top part of the spark plug where the wire attatches to the plug.

David

 

my plugs looked like that every time i've pulled them one friend said they will look like that because all hondas burn a little oil when under high rev/vtec another friend said it was running too lean but i had my car checked out and it wasn't runnin too lean at all the only solution i got from anybody was to change plugs every 10k to keep performance high because of fouled up plugs

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DW &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> if the grommets are leaking then there will be oil inside the holes and on the top part of the spark plug where the wire attatches to the plug.

David</TD></TR></TABLE>

actually the oil would be on the spark plug wire connector, not the top of the plug. just clarifying what you said.

the grommets are only like two bucks and need to be replaced periodically anyway. which is why i recommended it as the first thing to try.

 

ok well i cahnged the plugs and the car is still running lean...T'm gonna pull the plugs tomorrow morniing and have a look and see if it's on the bottom of the plugs. I already order the gromets, but I'll keep em lying around. I'm also gonna try and find a compression checker thing and check that tomorrow also.

 

Well it could be the valve seals

This is the best tool invented to replace them


http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog...+Tool


Thank me later

 

Just blow some compressed air (100 psi) into a cylinder. Seriously, it will only take you 1 hour tops to replace the seals. Of course when you get the cams and stuff off.

 

ok compression seems good 220lbs (17 kpa*1000) on all cylinders.
I'm throwing a code but I don't know if it's a 1 and a 10, (one short blink followed by one long) I think it is and that would explain the shity readout on the a/f (cause the 1 is the oxygen sensor right, and would the intake temp sensor make the car run poorly?). but there's was some oil on the #2 plug in the threads of it.

 

^^^

 

if there is carbon build up fouled plug its what they said if there is oil on the plug and you have good compression try getting a valve job. there can be excessive gap in the valves.... i did my own valve job and this was fixed