oil on spark plugs anything but busted rings?

[Fergus]

Last week my stock radiator went kaput.

Having had my Koyo for a week and it not fitting, the only way I could get it in was to jerry rig it. I put it in, fill the fluids and what not. She starts up, but runs rough and dies on me. I figure since the engine was running hot, I might of fouled the plugs.

I take em out, and they all have a bit of oil on them, 3rd cylinder a bit less than the rest. I also notice a bit of an oil leak under the car, no more than a tea spoon. I follow that back to the back of the valve cover and notice the shop didn't replace the rear most valve cover bolt.

So I figure the oil came in through 1 of 2 places. A ring or 5 went bad (but on all 4 pistons?) or it came in some weird way I cant figure out. It has a cosmetic metal head gasket, so I dont think that is shot. Bringing it to another shop on tuesday to see what they think, but wanting to get a bit of imput first.
Modified by Fergus at 2:44 PM 7/6/2005

[themadscientist]

Are you sure that oil didn't leak down into the spark plug pockets? You may have picked up the oil when they came out.

[Fergus]

I refered the sparkplug to my old hayes manual for my integra. the closest looking picture showed had the caption saying oil on the spark plug. to me it looks like a flat black paint on it. There was a small ammount of oil on the threaded part as well. But there was not any on the wire going down to the plugs. I tried to take a picture of the plug, but it didn't come out good. I'll try again when I get off work.

[themadscientist]

if it's dusty I would think carbon before oil. If it's wet and black it could be too rich (strong gas smell) or oil (you know the difference).

[AmoebAssassin]

Flat gray to black is fine. If the plugs are black and wet, wait for it to cool after you pull it and then feel the viscosity of hte fluid on it with a finger, i'm sure you know the difference. If the wetness goes away while the plug is cooling, it's gas and you're running rich. If it's oil it could be bad rings. Do a leakdown test, if this comes out fine then you may have bad valve stem seals.

Just out of curiousity, when the car runs, does it spew any black smoke and smell rich? Or does it throw silver-blue smoke, if at all?

[Fergus]

well, since I replaced the rad with my Koyo, I haven't done more than start it to run the coolant through the engine, since I'm not messing up the fins with my current electric fan. It was on for about a min, but the new plugs didn't have anything on them.

It has backfired a bit since I got the car, but was told the timing was ok (by the same crap shop). Going to a much better, but also more expensive shop on wednesday to do a compression test and what not.

[AmoebAssassin]

So is it oil on the plugs or gas? Backfiring+wet plugs = running rich, or timing is whack and the mixture isn't being given the chance to ignite properly.