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so i went to check my oil today and was really low... i know that i am not leaking it so i must be burning it right? well i stood behind the car while my friend red lined it and no black smoke came out. So then i pulled out one of my spark plugs (closest to the distributer) and it was covered in oil. is it my piston rings? any advice on what i should do?

First of all don't make a habit of standing behind your car while your friend redlines it, that probably won't help the situation. It's possible that it's a piston ring, or a headgasket, or a valve-cover gasket. Lets hope it's just a valve cover gasket.

Do you have oil down the side of your head?

I've noticed a small bit of oil in my spark plug well at times, but my oil level never changes.

Just for the record.. burning oil produces white smoke with a blue tint to it. Black smoke is usually the result of a rich fuel condition. Thick White smoke with a somewhat sweet smell to it is usually coolant burning (head gasket issue). Thin white smoke that looks somewhat like fog is usually just condensation, that accumulated in the exhaust system over night, burning off.

Tunes67

zoom_zoom94mx3 wrote:so i went to check my oil today and was really low... i know that i am not leaking it so i must be burning it right? well i stood behind the car while my friend red lined it and no black smoke came out. So then i pulled out one of my spark plugs (closest to the distributer) and it was covered in oil. is it my piston rings? any advice on what i should do?

What part of the plug was oil soaked? The electrode or the porcelain? If the electrode is wet, then it's either going to be piston rings worn, valve stems worn, or the valve seals are leaking. If the porcelain is wet (when you look down the valve cover at the back of the plug), most likely you need a new valve cover gasket.

well for the time being i topped up my oil level, but i looked on the side of the block and did not see any obvious oil leaks. any other suggestions? or should i start looking for a BP now lol.

jaydog5678 wrote:

zoom_zoom94mx3 wrote:so i went to check my oil today and was really low... i know that i am not leaking it so i must be burning it right? well i stood behind the car while my friend red lined it and no black smoke came out. So then i pulled out one of my spark plugs (closest to the distributer) and it was covered in oil. is it my piston rings? any advice on what i should do?

What part of the plug was oil soaked? The electrode or the porcelain? If the electrode is wet, then it's either going to be piston rings worn, valve stems worn, or the valve seals are leaking. If the porcelain is wet (when you look down the valve cover at the back of the plug), most likely you need a new valve cover gasket.

the electrode was covered in the oil.

i just did a DE swap.. and i have a blue tint to my exhuast, cyld. 4 plug is oil... and oil in that exhuast port

Check the intake for oil - my engine is pretty much "pumping" oil through the tube that goes from the crank case to the intake hose (this only happens at high loads - like if am trying to go from 60 to 80 on the highway to pass a truck or something). I have a homemade oil catch can that works for now - but i need to figure it out sometime when i have some extra time and money.

shameem wrote:Check the intake for oil - my engine is pretty much "pumping" oil through the tube that goes from the crank case to the intake hose (this only happens at high loads - like if am trying to go from 60 to 80 on the highway to pass a truck or something). I have a homemade oil catch can that works for now - but i need to figure it out sometime when i have some extra time and money.

Which part of the intake? manifold or the actual tubing?

I had the same problem and tightened my valve cover bolts. That did the trick.
Of course, results may vary...haha.

zCat wrote:I had the same problem and tightened my valve cover bolts. That did the trick.
Of course, results may vary...haha.

I went out today just to check on my oil level and tighten down my valve cover a little bit. Before I did that, i pulled out the spark plug that was soaked in oil before and there was not a drop this time any suggestions as to what happened? is there any way that somehow some oil could have gotten trapped?

Most of the time it is just the round gasket that recesses into the valve cover. It makes a seal between the head and the valve cover. The simplist way to determine if this is your problem....when you pull the spark plug wire out, is there oil on the tip of the wire? If so then it's safe to say it's the vavle cover "o-rings"

well when i first pulled the plug the whole electrode was soaked. now the plug is dry i tightend down the valve cover and that might have done it. I dont know really... but it is fine now