I was loosening all of my plugs in preparation for a compression test, and I went ahead and looked at each one before I hand-screwed them back in. Each one of them was black--not like a black buildup that flakes off (I've seen this before), but more like the black soot in an exhaust pipe that mostly just wipes off. I figure that, since this is a rebuilt engine and the rings haven't seated yet, it's probably burning a little bit of oil, so I'm not too worried about the balck stuff.

But, when I took out the plugs from cyls. 4, 6, and 8, they were wet with something. I couldn't really tell what the liquid was because they were black too--looked as if I had just sprayed some WD-40 on them (obviously I didn't). I smelled the plugs and they just smelled like gasoline (I figured all plugs must smell like that, though, since their job is to ignite fuel). Other than the wetness, they looked like all of the other plugs.

Any ideas as to what might cause that?

Thanks

 

What you were smelling and seeing was gas, I believe it means you're running either way rich. Gas is just being dumped down.

i could be wrong though.

 

Well, I probably should have mentioned that the car has not been run for several weeks. Plus, it's fuel injected, so I don't see how fuel would just leak down into the cylinders. I would think that, between that and having been sitting for as long as it has, any gas would probably have evaporated by now.

 

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's a duck....

just playin, hope someone can shed some more light on this for ya.

 

Pull a plug out when it's wet and let it sit. If the plug dries and becomes dull, it was fuel on the plug. If it stays wet and shiny, it's oil on the plug.