ther is oil coming out of my spark plug on the driver side also ther is white smoke coming out of my exhaust. i dont know if its a bad head gasget or not.

also the car has no egr valve and it stalls out alot it needs alot of work

 

White smoke means water is getting in the combustion chambers...head gasket is a possibility..get it looked at IMMEDIATELY if you want to keep your engine much longer. Water in the chambers can damage the walls and pistons, etc. And....do you mean when you pull the spark plug out, there's oil on it? I don't know where THAT could be coming from..maybe the head gasket as well? Not sure..but that's NOT GOOD either...shouldn't be getting oil into the combustion chamber like that...because the spark plug basically juts into the combustion chamber. I wonder if the missing EGR valve might have some connection with this....I mean, that system does a LOT more than I initially realized.

 

The oil on the spark plug could be leaking from above, unless it is coming from inside. If that's the case the plug will probably be pretty fouled, which means oil is getting in somehow, be it worn/broken rings/valve seals or guides, or all of the above.

A bad head gasket won't cause oil to get into the cylinders, since no oil flows through the heads. It could cause a coolant leak into the combustion chamber, which could cause white smoke. Condensation in the exhaust from changing temperature can also make white smoke, which will go away as the car warms up.

If the EGR valve is missing and the hole for it has not been sealed properly, that could definitely cause your stalling problem. Oil getting into the combustion chamber could cause stalling as well.

The first thing you should do is pull your spark plugs and check to see if any of them are very dirty or very clean. If any are cleaner than the others(whitish), it could mean that coolant is leaking into that cylinder and burning. Being really dirty, corroded, or ash covered could show that cylinder has a bad oil problem. The egr can't really be troubleshooted well if the car is not running somewhat smoothly, except visually.

Check your coolant level and top it off if it's low. If it gets lower, that shows that you're either leaking coolant or burning it.

 

Check for vacuum at oil dipstick tube (it was my problem). It can be bad intake manifold gasket or cracked intake + bad head gaskets (white smoke).

 

Could be wrong but I doubt the EGR is at fault. Nixon1 is right with the white smoke, that water is getting in and the bad thing is that Anti-Freeze eats engine bearings. Oily plugs is worn out rings. Replace your PCV valve now (makes your motor breath better). Do a compression and a leak-down test NOW! If you don't know how to do this, find someone that does. Good chance motor is going to be a boat anchor soon if you keep driving around. Hope Not - Just tring to Help...

 

Yeah..if you can avoid driving the car, definitely do it if you want to keep your motor. I'd still bet though that the EGR, with a combination of the other things, is causing a lot of your running problems. The EGR is a wicked complicated system and to just remove it isn't very good for the car... It's a vital piece of emissions equipment that the car was designed to operate with... Not having it there can make the car get really screwy. I'd put EGR valve on your things to buy list, but FIRST and FOREMOST fix the other things...ANYTHING in your combustion chambers that isn't gas and air is BAD! But I guess that goes without saying... And I'd agree with rez and mvftw that it's probably the piston rings...that seems like the easiest part to fail. If the piston rings are bad, you're gonna get oil up there, blowby, etc. Although you've gotta have a lot of oil in there to get it thrown all the way up to the spark plug at the top I imagine... You sure it's oil?? 100%? Because if you're running very rich, it can leave gunk and crap on the plug that looks kind of like oil.

 

hey i use to have the same problem with the oil being on the spark pugs but it turned out it was just my cocker cover gaskets where real bad and leaking down to the plugs, might wana chack that.

 

i'm not sure what it is yet but i'm gonna have my step dad look at it i dont think coolent is getting in the combustion chambers since ther hasnt been any coolent in it for a while because it has a bad watter pump

 

......are you saying you've been running the car without coolant?

 

where do you live and what junkyard will you be taking your car too.

you think Im kidding dont ya??? Not.

bad water pump and no coolant.

Someone call the thirdgen police, we need to sieze his car before its abused anymore.

 

Seriously dude, if you dont have coolant in your system, no matter what the temperature is, you can warp your block and other engine components from excessive heat, therefore damaging them and allowing oil to enter your combustion chamber. The water pump is on the front of the engine, and we have v6's which means a ton of breathing room under the hood. I would add that on your list of things to do list. How many miles does this engine have on it?

 

Well, one good thing; I think the oil coming out of the spark plug is the least of the worries.

 

ther are a 135,000 miles on my car

and i only ran the car for a short period of time without coolent i only moved it from my back yard to my garage and i would move it in the summer to cut the grass but that's it i know i cant run my car without coolent. if i took the car somewher i would put water in the radiator but i'm pretty sure it all leaked out.

 

Are you sure the pump's bad?

My 83 had a coolant hose rubbing against a fan belt. Leaked quite a bit.

If the car has been maintained, I's place 10 to1 odds that you need new Valve cover gaskets for the spark plug oil problem.

However, I just re-read the post -- sounds like a hack job. Here's my suggestion for repair/diagnose.

1. Change water pump and hoses and thermostat. Start car up and see if lots of white smoke still happens. If not, take it for a drive (have someone follow in another car) and see if car over heats.

If it does -- Go home and check oil -- If it looks like chocolate milk, the engine is dead.

2. If it doesn't overheat, drive to the auto store and get an EGR valve, valve cover gaskets, and everything needed for Tom P's major tuneup.

3. While installing new parts/tuning up, give the car a thorough go thru and make a list of what needs to be fixed to avoid future breakdowns

 

i'm pretty sure the water pump is bad because coolent is leaking from the pully and it rattles alot.

i'm gonna replace the egr valve and the water pump all the hoses.
then do a tuneup and change the spark plugs and wires.

it's not really smoking that much but i think its because the car hasnt ran in a while.

i'm also gonna replace the baterry because its pretty bad and the car wont start without it being jumped.

 

Isnt it nice how they put the hose so close to the belt.
I got a piece of metal flashing wraped around my heater hose for that reason.

 

Ha Ha... I originally thought it was a bad design untilI visited the boneyard and looked further... Turns out I had the hoses routed wrong after the engine swap!

 

Hi TomP thanks you really helped me out about the o-ring in the distributor so we found where the oil was coming from but my car is still running rough when we unplug the mass airflow sensor it runs better but still missing we put all new spark plugs so we don't know where to go from here on my 1988 firebird 2.8