Oil on top of cylinder? Plugs saturated

[lupus71]

Well, i just ran into a new problem. Ive had the car for about 4 days and was doing a sparkplug change and when i pulled two of them out they were so covered in oil it was dripping off of them. I took a few pics inside the two cylinders. I stopped there. What is this most likely from? I ordered a valve cover gasket kit but im not sure thats the problem. There was some oil on the top of the plug also. They look like they may bw original. The car has 84k miles.

[Brandoch]

That $17,000 is starting to sound accurate.

[lupus71]

Do you think i need rings?

[Helmsman]

Could a plug tube have broke, and when pulling the plug let oil in?

[lupus71]

Well i only took out two plugs and they were both soaked with oil. Inside one of the cylinders in the pic you can see pooled oil.

[nycplumber]

Could be a lot of things from oil over filled, to crack in the block. Take it to a professional

[Soden82]

Could it just be a leaking valve cover that’s allowing oil to get into the spark plug tube?

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Soden82

Could it just be a leaking valve cover that’s allowing oil to get into the spark plug tube?

What I meant and tend to believe.

[M3SQRD]

Agree with most comments - either due to piston rings or leaking valve cover/ spark plug tubes. Take it to well respected Indy BMW repair shop.

[lupus71]

This makes me sick. I have literally had this thing about a week. What do you think rings would cost? I think i can do the valve gasket but im not too sure about rings or valve stem seals.

[spammysammich]

Before you did the spark plugs was the car running like a car that burned up a lot of oil? Were you noticing consumption, blue smoke, poor combustion quality? If not, pull that pool of oil out with an extractor, pull all the plugs and do a compression check. Could be just a bunch of bad spark plug tube seals or cracked tubes. On your other plugs send your scope down before you pull the plugs to check for pooled oil in the tubes.

FYI virtually none of us get away with just valve cover gaskets as a long term fix for seepage. The magnesium valve covers need refinishing or replacing to be fully fluid tight again. There are aftermarket aluminum valve covers that show promise in terms of being a long term solution. Good luck.

[lupus71]

I didnt notice it blowing any smoke. I also wasnt really looking for it. I have read about the covers being not the greatest and i got some of that drei bond that is suppose help.

[nick3753]

Who did you buy the car from? Maybe there is some recourse if it was a dealer.

[lupus71]

I bought it from the group b in miami. It was as is. So im stuck with it. The plugs did have a little oil in the tube and top of plug but the tip and threads were literally drenched. Im not even sure they were firing it was dripping off, though it seemed to be running on all 8.

[Ximian]

It's likely a spark plug tube not seating properly or being damaged in some way. There's no way it's coming from the cylinder's combustion chamber due to some issue with the piston rings without other more noticeable problems.

That level of carbon build up on the piston isn't unusual. The amount of posts I've read about people putting regular gas from no-name gas stations in their cars...