Oil thru Plugs!? What?!

Jan 25, 2007
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Burbank, CA
Yea, oil is coming up through the spark plugs? not the valve covers.

are my rings bad? I just had this thing rebuilt with ross pistons and rings.
 

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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Actually, it is running down from the valve cover into the sparkplugs. If it was blowby, you would be smoking like a cheap cigar. But then again, who did the rebuild?
 
Jan 25, 2007
27
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Burbank, CA
No, it's not leaking from the covers. I first noticed it before the rebuild. Plug galley was a lake with oil. So I had the engine rebuilt because I was going to go turbo on it. Change the pistons and a MHG. So I get it back, drive it around for a few days and then I open it up and look! A lake of oil in the middle of my engine. I clean it all up and then turn it on to see where it was coming from and sure enough, just like before the rebuild, oil started emerging from the spark plugs.
Just a local mechanic. I don't know the name of the shop that he used for the engine work.
 

CRE

7M-GE + MAFT Pro + T = :D
Oct 24, 2005
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Denver, CO
Yeah.... seriously, if you were somehow pumping enough oil into the cylinder that it could soak past a loosely installed spark plug the car wouldn't run. You're either leaking from the seals around the base of the valve covers, a crack in the head, or from one of the plugs to the galley.

Oil leaking past the valve cover seals is extremely common and it really has nowhere else to go but the plug galley.
 

johnathan1

Supra =
Aug 19, 2005
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Downey, California, United States
Yea, when the oil is leaking from the valve covers (usually due to overtorqueing the valve covers) it leaks straight down into the spark plug area. Although you won't actually be able to see it leaking...

I would bet $1000 that your valve covers are leaking...I would replace the gaskets, and make sure you put a nice bead of silicone (fipg) around each one, and make sure you torque the bolts to spec with new hardware. (preferably hex-heads with internal locking washers on top of the grommets)
 

supramacist

Banned
Apr 8, 2006
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The Grassy Knole
If you still don't believe these guys put some teflon tape around your plugs. Not much. Just enough so that you will know that oil isn't seeping up through the plugs.
 

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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Well, gravity doesn't push the oil upwards around the oil control ring, into the combustion chamber, missing the flame front, and up through the threads.
 

Clip

The Magnificent Seven
Oct 16, 2005
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Virginia
why not just stick with the regular toyota valve cover screws and torque them properly? ive never run into a problem stripping mine.
 
Jan 25, 2007
27
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Burbank, CA
OK. so I cleaned everything up and changed the valve cover gasket along with the long galley cover and sure enough, the leaking stoped.
I gues I'm going crazy.

:dunno:
 

IJ.

Grumpy Old Man
Mar 30, 2005
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Ummm if the crush washer on the bottom of the plug can seal combustion pressures I can't see Oil ever coming UP through it......

A loose plug isn't something you'd NOT notice.
 

Burntz

Sold the Supra
Apr 20, 2007
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IJ. said:
Ummm if the crush washer on the bottom of the plug can seal combustion pressures I can't see Oil ever coming UP through it......

A loose plug isn't something you'd NOT notice.

I disagree :icon_razz

On my camaro i did the plugs, and I know for a fact that i tightened them (or so I thought) and a week after, i was replacing the wires (the car ran fine though), and when i pulled 1 off, i randomly decided to make sure the plug was tight... and it was finger loose

and it ran fine, so who knows lol