My nephew wanted me to help him put some new spark plugs into his '94 Probe GT. Are the plugs holes supposed to have oil in them? How are you supposed to get a socket around the plugs there doesn't seem to be room. Any help will be appreciated.

Here are some pics.

 

We got the socket around them, the little rubber boots were still down in there, but is there supposed to be so much oil in there?

 

No there should not be oil there. The oil is probably coming from a leaking Valve Cover Gasket.

 

Well we changed all the plugs. Has anybody ever had that problem on an overhead cam motor? How long did you run it like that?

 

Keith,

Anyone with a Mazda or Mitsubishi OHC engine has had that problem. They usually start around 60,000 miles and stop around 110,000 miles, when the engine is pretty much shot anyway.

You could remove the cam cover and reseal it to the head, but be prepared to do more work when you open it up, You're likely going to want to replace the timing set if you haven't done so recently. If you plan to reuse the timing belt, make sure you mark the rotation direction.

You may find some ugliness in the cam and followers that could help you decide how long to keep the car. You should also check the fore-and-aft play (thrust) of the camshafts, and look for any wear at the rear of the head in the cam areas. There were a lot of TSBs on the 2.5L Mazda engine, and many of them were for the head and camshafts/valve train.

Good luck.

 

I think his car has around 95,000 miles on it. It seems to run really good. This is the first problem he's found with it.

I think he should just let it leak for now because that vavle cover in the back isn't accesible without removing a lot of crap. It should be alright til summer I hope.

This is one reason I hate over head cams! They are just too hard to work on because they are so complex and cluttered.