Okay, I need help here. First of all, i'm not a motorhead.. so try to keep it simple cause i don't understand technical explanation.

Yesterday I brought my car to a garage for a tune up and maintenance. While taking off the sparkplugs, I noticed there's oil in the 2nd sparkplug. The 3rd have some oil on the coil pack, but none on the sparkplug. This i figured is because of some electrical grease from the coil packs.

But the 2nd plug is worrying me, it is literally oily from top to bottom (yes, including the ignition tip). The mechanic told me it's probably due to bad screw thread on the block. But when I asked whether the plugs were loose when he untighten it, he said that it was tight.... so i'm confused...

Secondly.. i'm not quite sure how the engine works... but, isn't the oil suppose to lubricate the lower part of the cylinder against the piston ring... it isn't suppose to enter the compression chamber right? and i'm sure there are no oil line in between the block walls right? all i know is water jacket to be there. but no oil jacket...

Any advice are appreciated.. and sorry for the bad english...

 

Most likely will be the valve cover gasket that is bad and will need to be replaced. Unless you're a confident DIY'er, this will cost some money.

You will also want to check the valve seals, and change them out at the same time. Might as well since you'll be in there.

Here is a good link to give you an idea:

Oil leaking into spark plug holes

 

@Red Rockit: tks for the info. I have look into the link, but I think they are discussing the D series.. I still can't find the L15A1 motor diagram, but i'm preety sure, the L15 don't use the rubber o rings like the D. from a photo of the engine cutout, i can see that the sparkplug hole is way back behind the camshaft, and goes directly into the compression chamber.

valve seals might have been it, but i'm not sure yet... another possibility i'm guessing is bad piston rings, or scratched cylinder... but those two are costly repairs... and i'm opting to find a cheaper solution if possible...

Btw, i'm not going to DIY this thing... i probably screw it up anyways... i'm going to hand it over to a mechanic... But I want to have at least a firm grasp on the problem, before a mechanic start hacking away at my motor...

 

Could be that the VC gasket is bad over that plug and the oil pooled in there and then soaked the plug as it was removed. That would be the best case scenario.

There are a good number of Honda engines past and present that are known to consume a good amount of oil, as it takes a considerable amount of pressure to operate the VTEC systems.

So there is also the possibility it blew past the valve stem seals due to the oil filling the head under pressure or less likely came from blowing past the piston rings, but that is going to require some disassembly to determine.

Have the mechanic do a leakdown and compression test before anything else.

If compression is good and leakdown is low over a long period of time your probably fine and a new gasket with some RTV around the valvecover should take care of it.

 

[quote=DiamondStarMonsters;1049664

So there is also the possibility it blew past the valve stem seals due to the oil filling the head under pressure or less likely came from blowing past the piston rings, but that is going to require some disassembly to determine.

DSM you nailed it, at least in my case. Last week I went to change out the plugs in my '97 Accord ( High mileage ) and I discovered oil on all of the plugs, what's strange is the car was running ok.
Mech. told me how to change the VC. It was so easy that even I could do it.....

 

@DSM: ok, i understand compression test. but what's a leakdown? Red Rockit and you both suspect the Valve Cover gasket might be bad. I'll check again. If it indeed the VC gasket, I should find oil trickle mark somewhere around the 2nd hole right? I'll look into it. Btw, this is the valve cover right? not the head?

If there are no trickle mark, then i'm off to the garage to do the compression test (and leakdown if i understand what that is?). If compression is good, then i'll just replace the gasket with new ones.

if compression is bad then it will be the valve stem seals... This will require Head disassembly... If this is the case, then I think I'll go thorugh with replacing the valve spring and camshaft with better ones, since I'm in there.

3rd possibility is the Piston Rings or Cylinder.. But I'm thinking less likely, since my motor don't burn much oil, the exhaust fumes is clear, and no oil residue on the exhaust..

Does that sounds like a good attack plan?