Oil comming out of spark plugs????

[PUSHER]

What the heck is causing oil to build up and come out of my spark plug holes? When I take the plugs out they are soaked in oil, cyl 1 is fine and doesnt ooz oil and read 130psi, cyl 2 was 150 psi, all others were around 120-130. At first I thought the engine was shot and that the piston rings were screwed, but after the compression check I guess its comming from the head somehow. Was wondering what this could be?

[panchovisa]

If your confident it's not the rings, then the valve stem seals are probably the problem. It's not a tough fix, and not expensive. Also make sure you have washers on your plugs.

[PUSHER]

that kind of compression would indicate that the rings are still solid, correct? I'm not sure.

[26th-Z]

Bad rings are probably not going to push oil up into the combustion chamber. Your problem sounds more like valve stem seals and or valve guides.

[Ed]

Compression readings usually vary depending on the engine set-up, type of pistons, head configuration etc... What your looking for when you do a compression test is one or two cylinders that read lower than the others. If your # 2 pushed 150lbs then that should be your benchmark. If the other pistons are way off that number then you might have a compression problem. But if the other's are close then your o.k. A bad cylinder will be very noticable and may only read half of what the other cylinders read.

Your spark plugs are oily because of bad valve stem seals. While the engine is running oil will pass the bad seal and down the valve stem. While the engine is running this oil will burn up and come out of your tail pipe as blue smoke. When the engine is off this oil will drip down the valve into the combustion chamber and onto the spark plug.

If you replace the seals yourself it's cheap about $3.00 a seal X 12= $36 bucks.:classic: Good luck.

[PUSHER]

Thats why I figured that the rings were okay, since the psi was about all the same. I also knew to look for blue smoke, and did not see any....which is confusing the crap out of me, because obviously their is oil in their to burn.... I guess ill replace the valve stems and see how that goes. Thanks.

[2ManyZs]

The only way to know for sure where the problem might be would be to do a compression leakdown test. A compression test doesn't tell the whole story.

During a leak down test, compressed air is pumped into the cylinder, and wherever the air is escaping will tell you where your problem lies.

Bad valve seals will end up letting the air escape into the valve cover as well as it will if it is escaping past the rings.

To be absolutely sure of your engines condition, you ought to do a leakdown test after you replace the valve seals, since the seal replacement is the easiest and cheapest to do. Also, the seals don't require a large amount of teardown, so it would be the first thing I would try.

Once the seals are replaced, the only other places you would lose pressure during a leak down test would be either the rings or the valves or seats themselves.

[TomoHawk]

You could try decarbonizing the engine before you tear the head apart to change the seals. It would clean up the vlaveas so they seal better, plus better performance. All that involves is running some cleaner liquid through the vacuum port.

[Phred]

Also be aware that it is possible to have good compression and oilfouled plugs. The compression rings control compression and the oil ring controls the oil. so if you have a bad oil ring and good compression rings, it can smoke and look ugly, and still have good compression. Another possible culprit is a plugged breather system. Crankcase pressure would then seek the line of least resistance, that is, the weekest cyl. to vent into. But you will usually see leaking seals when this happens.

An old engine builder once told me, The more you know doesn't make it any easier, just more confusing.

Phred