So yesterday i noticed my car was missing, could hear hollow pops at idle and i decided to go buy a new set of plugs. I changed them out 3 weeks ago so i wasnt sure what i was gonna find.

To my surprise i found oil on all driver side plugs.
Also found oil on 2 of the passenger side plugs.

Heres what i found.

Drivers side


Passenger side


What exactly am i looking at here? what can i do to help the situation?


I dont really want to be changing my plugs every couple of weeks. The only thing externally that maybe could of caused the oil on the plugs was my valve covers leaking but even then i dont think it would be that easy for the oil to get on the plugs.

What does oil on the plugs usually signify? Last time i changed my plugs i only had a couple with oil.

Any help appreciated.

 

The important part is the electrode and those all look pretty good. The 2nd from the left in the bottom photo looks like it might have some carbon buildup, but the color on them doesn't look too bad. Have you taken the car out on a highway and ran it good and hard lately? You know, wide open for a mile or two to blow it out good. I would also recommend running some Seafoam in your tank.

 

There are a lot of "important parts" to look at and those pictures don't show a majority of them.

As for your oil problem, first guess would be valve seals. My 454SS needed the right side plugs changed every 6 months because they were always fouling up. I changed the valve seals on that head and no more plugs fouled up.

Looking at the deposits on the ground strap, you may want to consider moving up one heat range. I can't see a good heat line indicator on any of the ground straps to make a good decision. Fix the valve seals before changing heat ranges. You want to run as cold a plug as possible without them fouling up. If you have a valve seal issue then running hotter plugs is just a bandaid.

 

Thanks for the reply guys.


@jtsk i havent really ran the car at wot for extended periods of time but i did seafoam the car when i bought it about a month and a half ago. I mostly used the brake booster line though i poured very little in my gas tank.

Think running a can strictly through gas tank would help with the carbon buildup?

@Alkyliroc
Well wouldnt bad valve seals smoke at idle? Im not really getting any smoke at idle right now.

Which plugs would u recommend me using ? Ive always just used ac delco (copper). How would moving up heat ranges help exactly?

 

AlkyIROC is correct the pictures don,t show enough detail and what they do show indicated about what he stated
read thru this
http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/...php?f=70&t=202

 

Nothing wrong with those R45TS plugs. I ran them in street engines for years. A colder plug is R44TS or just R44T if you don't want or can't use an extended tip. My race engine can't use an extended tip. The piston dome is too big.

Bad valve seals don't typically smoke at idle. They'll produce smoke when first started up because the oil is leaking down past the guides. A minimal amount will get pulled down the intake guide when the engine is running but not usually enough to produce a lot of smoke. Exhaust guides won't leak oil into the cylinder when the engine is running. The exhaust gasses pushing out keep the oil from going in. When you replace them, you still change them all.

 

Running a can of Seafoam in the tank is perfectly fine. I use it every few thousand miles myself in all of my vehicles.

 

Since there's one plug that is different than the rest, I would just put in a set of whatever the book calls for and run them for a while. Then pull and put the eye ball on them to establish a baseline.