lost power: spark or injector??

[underspecial]

So my girlfriend (honest) drove my '86 3.0 with what I thought was a fouled plug for miles (like 40). By the time I finally arrived to save the day with fresh plugs more problems had arisen. Several plug wire ends had cracked and split from the oil leaking out of the loose valve covers. Now I'm having a problem keeping one plug from fouling almost immediately. New plug wires and a pile of fouled plugs aren't helping. Why?

[Jeeves]

O2 sensor maybe?

When was the last tuneup?

[underspecial]

Originally Posted by Jeeves

O2 sensor maybe?

When was the last tuneup?

O2?? How to tell?

Last tuneup?? Hard to say, except what I've done : oil, air filter, ....
You should know that altho i've had this car for 2 1/2 years, I only started driving it 3 months ago. It had top end, valve work before I got it (i don't know what that was about) and it ran like a banshee before the girl thing happened.
One theory of mine is that quite a bit of oil (from the loose valve cover gasket) dropped in the chamber while the plug was pulled, and this is causing the plug to foul very quickly.

[MkIII_Driver]

actually i had the same problem this is what needs to be done. First drain oil and let it sit over night with the pulg out. then remove the cam covers. Replace the gaskets. This is the hard part, try to get all of the oil out of the spark plug wells. I used lighter fluid its a great degreaser. After that replace the new or cleaned spark plugs and you should be good.

[Jeeves]

That's to get rid of oil leaking. If his plugs are fouling IN the motor, that's not related.

[MkIII_Driver]

Several plug wire ends had cracked and split from the oil leaking out of the loose valve covers.

Valve cover leak down into the spark plug wells when he removed the spark plugs the oil fell into the piston wells and tada! Gunked up plugs.....maybe im wrong but my 89 cressida did the same thing i did the steps in my last post and no more problem.

[underspecial]

ok. new plugs do not change anything, even for the 1st 30 secends. i would think it would take at least a little while to foul a plug. btw, plug is very black carbon fouled, like way too rich, not wet like oil fouling.
could it be valve clearance?

Other ideas to check??