Oil in spark plug hole

[Some Car Guy]

Will a little oil hurt things?

I changed my plugs today and noticed a few plugs had some oil on them. Some had none.

The car is a 97 and the boots were still soft and had no cracks.

Now the miss I had is much worse. I'm thinking that maybe the boots are bad even though they don't look it.

Two of them had been replaced and the rest looked factory. The two new ones had new coils on them and those were the only cylinders that they "popped" out of. The rest slid right out.

If I replaced the other 6 will the oil just kill them? The valve covers aren;t leaking out side the engine so I hate to change them if not really needed.

Thanks

 

[BobHyatt]

Will a little oil hurt things?

I changed my plugs today and noticed a few plugs had some oil on them. Some had none.

The car is a 97 and the boots were still soft and had no cracks.

Now the miss I had is much worse. I'm thinking that maybe the boots are bad even though they don't look it.

Two of them had been replaced and the rest looked factory. The two new ones had new coils on them and those were the only cylinders that they "popped" out of. The rest slid right out.

If I replaced the other 6 will the oil just kill them? The valve covers aren;t leaking out side the engine so I hate to change them if not really needed.

Thanks

How can you get oil in the plug openings? Valve covers leaking that much oil? In any case, oils and plugs do not mix, it will cause a miss. I'd pull the plugs, and the boots. Wash the boots in gas and dry, ditto for the plugs. Clean the plug wells with shop rag (clean, no grit) as well. Make sure springs (coil to plug) are clean as well.

And finally, fix the leak to prevent recurrence. BTW is the 97 COP or plug wires? If wires I would replace 'em as well. You can buy new COP boots at advanced. I think around 60 bucks for all 8 (sold in boxes of 2 if I recall).

 

[Some Car Guy]

There are seals to keep oil out of the plug holes

 

[BobHyatt]

There are seals to keep oil out of the plug holes

the only seal is the top of the plug boot that is supposed to fit in the plug well opening snugly. After a year or two of high temp operation, the fit is not so snug. There are no seals anywhere else as the plug well is simply bored straight thru the head to the combustion chamber. We have seen water intrusion problems on my son's 2000 where heavy rain can get water on top of the motor and it ends up in some of the plug wells and can cause a miss to develop.

 

[Green&GoldGT]

Sounds like you need to replace your pcv valve(on the top of your valve covers). If they are clogged then they spew oil from the pressure