Thread: Oil all over my spark plugs. Normal? Good? Bad?

I replaced my spark plugs today. After pulling the old ones out, I noticed that the #2 and #3 spark plugs had oil on the threads and the electrode.

I looked down the spark plug holes, and the tops of all my pistons looked clean and dry, except cylinder #3. It had oil and some other grime on top.

Should I be concerned? Normal for a motor with 117k miles?

It's probably just the O-rings that seal the valve cover around each spark plug well. You'll need to get a complete valve cover gasket and replace it. Not too hard, and do some searching here and on the old board, plenty of information about how to do it.

I am gonna have to disagree here... if it were a gasket problem there would be oil on the ceramic part of the plug, not the electrode/treads.

This is more likely the result of the plugs being in for a long time and/or a slight leak of oil past the piston rings and/or valve seals.

I'm going to have to agree with Kent. Gravity probably pulled the tiny bit of oil that was sitting in the wells down onto the threads.

It is likely that the tube seals leak enough to drip down the sides of the plug wells, and not leak oil onto the ceramic. It prob just seeped down onto the plug base, then when they were taken out it poured down the threads...

Spark plug gasket.

My 2nd B14 had this oil leak when I first bought it. The engine had 90K miles. Ordered a full valve cover gasket set from Greg V at GSPEC and I was all set. Swapped out the gasket and no more issues. Shes got about 125000 miles now and no leaks.