how did you get the oil out of your spark plug holes? you didnt let the oil drain into your cylinders did you?

 

i didnt know there was oil on them until i pulled them out...the oil was on the electrode part...which is what concerned me

 

well, when i first took my coilpack off i saw the oil. i sucked all the oil out of the holes before i pulled the plugs out. after i put everything back together the car ran like crap for a little bit and it was blowing smoke. so you might need to let it run, atleast puttputt it up to autozone to get it scanned. you might have a bad coilpack do to the oil. i dont think its anything major, just dont freak out and do some research on all the different forums. if you have a bentley or haynes manual check in those and see what they say about oil in your spark plug holes.

 

Its fine to let the engine burn the oil if there is oil in the spark plug hole it will just smoke for like 20 min. It could cause a little damage to the cat's but shouldn't really be noticeable in the long term of things. However it sounds like you have a different problem. If when you unplug the coil pack there is a lot of oil on the coil pack itself you definitely need a valve cover gasket. Black plugs doesn't automatically mean oil it could just be because of the misfiring and that cylinder just isn't burning the gas completely causing carbon build up. Bottom line is oil in your spark plug hole = misfire. My 2.8 had oil all the way to the top of the plugs... no more misfire after I did the gaskets and wires.

 

thats for all ther esponses guys. i got the email from ecs tuning that my valve cover gasket is on the way...ill get that done asap..let it run for a few and hopefully that will be ok....

should i drop the addition $8 and buy new plugs again or shoud the ones I already have be ok since i onyl used them for 15 minutes?

Thanks

 

from what hes saying, the oil isnt on the outside of the spark plugs (on the ceramic part) as if it were a valve cover gasket. its on the inside of the cylinder on the electrode of the plug. the plug seals itself against the head, even if the valve cover was leaking it couldnt leak into the cylinder unless you removed the spark plugs. as long as there was no oil on the coil packs its not your valve cover.

clean off the plugs you have with some parts cleaner and let them dry completely and you can reuse them. once you figure out your problem its not a bad idea to replace them again though. a compression test will tell you if its a head gasket or not, although there would normaly be oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil and in the cylinder. you can rent a tester from autozone or just buy one, i got one from harbor freight for like $15. its a worthwhile tool to have.

 

UPDATE...
Did the valve cover gasket today. no difference. let it run for about 10 minutes, it wasn't blowing smoke and just kept blub blub blubbing...

anyways...next plan of action...one of the two...
one - going to wait until late tonight and drive my car to autozone and leave in the parking lot (to avoid other vehicles on the road), then drop by tomorrow after work and see if they will scan it, then drive it home after hours...

or

buy a cheap scanner from autozone and pull the damn code. i know the vag it the preferred scanner here but i dont want to spend $200+ on a scanner than I can only use on that car..


what do you guys think?

 

if you have access to a laptop, buy a $15 USB vag cable off ebay and use the trial version of vag-com. your going to pay at least $50 for a generic crap scanner that will just give you general P-codes, so as long as you have a computer to hook up to the car, save some money and get a decent scanner that will let you do alot more.

i still say get a compression tester and hook it up to each cylinder. ten bucks says you have low compression in atleast one of them.

 

ok ok ok...FINE!!!...just kidding...

i am going to run over to autozone and pick up a compression tester....i do have access to a harbor freight but not until tomorrow (its by work like 30 miles away)...oh well ill spend the extra 10 bucks....ill do the compression test and get back to you...thanks!

i searched quickly on here, google, and audidiy...any step by step instructions would be great...or ill just search more when i get home

 

ok just did a compression test...

using the cylinder closest to the front of the car as #1 and the one towards the back as #4...they read as follows.

#1 - 168
#2 - 159
#3 - 175
#4 - 178

Looks like number 2 is the loser by far....the guy at autozone sid they should all be within 10 PSI, and they all are except 2. I did it twice just to be sure. Suggestions?