Quick question about oil above the spark plugs on 94-I4 - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

']['R][) camry · 10-07-2002, 11:07 AM

Hey guys.. There is about 4mm of oil pooled around one of my spark plugs and then just a bit of oil around one other plug.

This is the upper head gasket right? Also how urgent is it to fix this? I am guessing that the oil will not disrupt the flow of power from the spark plug wire to the spark plug...?

Hopefully I can just do nothing for a year or so.. car runs fine...

thanx

CorollaKen · 10-07-2002, 12:12 PM

Hang on there...

I had some work done on mine in May, and it was the spark plug tube that had lost it's seal. What they have to do is remove the valve cover, and re-seat the tube to the head. That tube is all that separates the oil from gushing around the spark plugs.

Shouldn't cost much and you may be able to DIY instead too.

Good luck,

']['R][) camry · 10-07-2002, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamryKen

Hang on there...

I had some work done on mine in May, and it was the spark plug tube that had lost it's seal. What they have to do is remove the valve cover, and re-seat the tube to the head. That tube is all that separates the oil from gushing around the spark plugs.

Shouldn't cost much and you may be able to DIY instead too.

Good luck,

Well I will try to explain this in a way that makes sense... but IDK if I can. When you look down inside the tube just over half way down there is a joint (I guess where it would separate when you take the head off) I believe that it is leaking from this joint.. is there not a head gasket in there? You are saying that they can remove the head and put it back on for cheep?

thanx for the reply!

CorollaKen · 10-07-2002, 03:22 PM

Sorry, I meant remove the valve cover (not the head) and the plug tube mates to the top (backside) of the "head" block. There is no gasket at this point just the seal around the tube. There is a gasket on the valve cover, but if you remove the cover carefully, you should be able to re0use the gasket, you'll just have to re-do some of the silicone sealant here and there.

Get your Haynes manul out - it will have pictures of a complete 4cyl tear down and you'll see what I have been trying to explain

']['R][) camry · 10-07-2002, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamryKen

Sorry, I meant remove the valve cover (not the head) and the plug tube mates to the top (backside) of the "head" block. There is no gasket at this point just the seal around the tube. There is a gasket on the valve cover, but if you remove the cover carefully, you should be able to re0use the gasket, you'll just have to re-do some of the silicone sealant here and there.

Get your Haynes manul out - it will have pictures of a complete 4cyl tear down and you'll see what I have been trying to explain

ok cool thanx, I will take a look at my Haynes manual tonight

88 LE · 10-08-2002, 04:12 AM

Man you guys are all confused.

Oil around the sparkplugs is caused by bad sparkplug tube gaskets.

The only thing you need to replace are those gaskets and the valve cover does not have to come off.

1. Remove the sparkplug wires.

2. Remove the 4 nuts holding down the vavle cover. You need a 30mm socket + rachet or a big cresent wrench for this.

3. After you remove the nuts you can remove the sparkplug tube gaskets and replace them.

4. Put everything back together in reverse order.

Thats all there is to it.

CorollaKen · 10-09-2002, 07:25 AM

Thanks 88 LE.

I guess I got hosed yet again by a Toyota dealer !!!

Sorry for spreading mis-information guys. I only repeated how it was - quite clearly - explained to me by the mechanic working on my car at the time.

You really have to watch dealers. They charged me hours to figure why my car was turning over but not sparking. TUrns out the distributor had kicked the bucket, but I think that would have been easy to figure out (good alt, battery, plugs, wires, coil, starter - gee I wonder where it could be going wrong).

Thanks again 88 LE, anyways.