Oil in spark plug hole?

[robnitro]

I was checking my plugs, and I saw on the rightmost plug it had oil at the washers and a little on the thread, so I look into the hole and there is a bit of oil there. It has happened before 2 times (once in another spark plug hole), but I cleaned it up using q tips on a stick. The plug itself looks clean , just the oil seems to be coming down the hole from halfway.

I tightened the valve cover bolts a bit for that side of the engine, which might help... but I wonder what this very small leak is from!

Its a 1995 Civic DX (1.5 l SOHC non vtec).

 

[The_Jeff]

It's your valve cover gasket. You've probably got it on the thread because you "scraped" the plug a little bit through the puddle.

 

[JTK]

This is fairly common for this type of cylinder head design. There is an "O"-ring seal where the spark plug tube meets the cylinder head. You have to remove the valve cover to replace the "O"-ring seals. I've never seen one leak bad enough to fill the tube & short out a plug, so I wouldn't worry about it. Some manufacturers make the spark plug boot fit REALLY tight in the tube to act as a seal to prevent this type of oil leakage.
G/luck
Joel

 

[joee12]

Change your valve cover gasket

-Joe

 

[digitaldrifter91]

if its his spark plug with oil, its the spark plug gasket....not the valve cover gasket..unless its once piece which i highly doubt.

u can buy the kit at napa over here in our area on power inn road...i belive they have the kit for the valve cover, and the spark plugs, and the nuts for it...but call to be sure.

 

[robnitro]

How much is the kit about, and is the install difficult? Maybe we can hang out one day and you can help me do it?

It will be cool to see how the engine looks after 2 14,000 mile intervals of Amsoil, one 7500 interval of Mobil 1, one 8,000 interval of Delvac 1, and now 7000 miles on Mobil 1.

I bought it at 90k miles and I had basic work done on the car by a nice guy my ex gf's fam knew that worked for Honda. He changed the t-belt, water pump, adjusted the valves, changed the valve cover gasket, and changed the belts. So, I doubt I need to change the valve cover gasket again.

The car has 142k miles now, a lot of distant trips from fla to nyc, to here in CA, so it has been only 2 years of first buying the car when it had 90k miles.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Drew99GT]

It's the rubber o-ring that seals the spark plug tube to the cylinder head, like someone else posted. My 94 Corolla has the same exact issue, but doesn't hurt performance at all. Heck, you even lubricate the spark plug threads in the cylinder head every time you drive