valve cover gasket

[SmitsYoda]

So in the process of my examining my car's weird gasy exhaust smell when i checked my plugs i pulled off the wires and noticed oil down inside each hole. I assume the my valve cover gasket has gone bad. Could that cause the car to smoke from the exhaust and give out weird gas smells? I've never had a sar seep oil down inside the holes where the oil goes it must have filled up to at least less then a quarter inch per hole. What do you guys think?

[fishexpo101]

Sounds like the o-rings that seal the sparkplug tubes is either dried out or the just plain degraded over time. Could also be as simple as oil spilled during an oil change working its way down the tubes - though it would take a considerable amount of spilled oil to do that.

It is possible that this could cause that "rich" exhaust odor, as it is more likely to cause the plugs to misfire, leading to an excessively rich air/fuel mix. How did the plugs read when you pulled the plugs? Did that oil seep down past the threads and fouled the end?

[SmitsYoda]

When i took the plugs out they were find on the bottom but yes some oil did make it's way down there. The bottom of the plugs were dry though where it screws into the block. However the plug wires at the bottom had a little bit of oil on them.

[fishexpo101]

Hmm, possible that oil wicked partway up the plug boot - I'd double check to make sure they are clean and dry. A Q-Tip would come in pretty handy here. Even just touching the bottom of the boot - you could get a misfire on the plug. Won't happen consistently, but you don't need to miss many to enrich that air/fuel mix to cause a strong gasoline odor in the exhaust.