changed my spark plugs today and i noticed that they have oil on them. oh no! what does this mean?





[Modified by Nos4R2, 4:11 AM 3/29/2002]

 

The enfine run too rich!!
Fire connot burn all the gaz thats why!
No blue or white smoke on the back?? If not the engine is ok

 

Do you have oil in the spark plug housing? If so, it's no big deal... you'll just need to replace the spark plug seals ($4 each)...

 

Oil can appear on the plucg if the engine has done a high miliage, this is unavoidable. Oil enters the cylinders because of worn valve guids or ware in the cylinder. There are different ways to fix this, on one car I had I fitted oversized piston rings and that sorted the problem out.

Are you sure it is oil on the plugs, a rich fuel mixture will cause a sooty deposit to form on the spark plug.

Look to see if there is any smoke coming out of the exhaust, if there is blue smoke then the engine is burning oil (most noticable when reving fast), if not then you probably dont need to worry for a little bit. You could always try some sort of oil additive, be carefull though, some engines dont like oil additives, get some advice first.

 

thanks for all the replies, my fear have subsided. actually it is a used jap-spec engine so yeah, i guess it might be a high mileage motor. there's no smoke coming out, the exhaust fumes looks 'clean' but i think it was because after the swap i had a CEL for 2 weeks before we finally fixed the problem and it was running so rich you could smell the fuel. that's the reason also why i changed the plugs.