mrmagicpapi

A few days ago I took out my spark plugs 2 replace them with the oem ngk's. Who ever owned the car b4 me had bosch platinum 1's (****ty Plugs) in there b4. Anyway wen i removed the 3 spark plugs in the rear of the engine (near the firewall) there was an oily substance on them. The 3 in the front were fine, and were in normal condition. I have no blue smoke or any kind of colored smoke coming from my exhaust, so i don't think i'm burning oil, but wat could be wrong here? 1 of my head gaskets? Piston Rings? Any1 wit any advice or solution please help, thanx.

ProjectMax96

when i removed mine there was a little bit of oil on them...pretty sure just means its old and they needed to be changed. My car has always ran good.

abcabccba

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/plugs.html

If you are worried about the pistons/rings do a compression test. PCVs can do this as well, but I'm not sure if it happens commonly with maximas, replace that first, it's cheap.

I wouldn't loose any sleep over it though if your car runs fine and there wasn't a ton on there. Who knows how long they were in for before.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Easy fix, you need a new valve cover gasket.

KRRZ350

iTrader: (29)

njmaxseltd has a good point, I think everyone else including myself assumed you meant burnt oil on the plug tip. If it is wet with oil on the porcelain or nut side of the plug you have a leaking valve-cover gasket. If it is burnt oil on the tips you should replace the pcv valve then do a compression test.

sky jumper

before calling foul on the valve cover gasket do a simple visual inspection of the spark plug tubes (with plugs removed). if you don't see a bunch of oil flowing down the side and pooling up, then it's not the tube seals (e.g. valve cover gasket set).

this is what a clean plug tube looks like:
(of course, we hope you don't have the carbon coated piston tops. and I'm wishing I had never used anti-seize on the threads.)
edit: NO, anti-seize did not cause the carbon. I didn't even imply that. good grief the conclusions you people draw. I just don't like having its residue piling up in the plug tube as shown below...

mrmagicpapi

Thanx, i'll go ahead and replace my pcv, it needs 2 be changed anyway. I do a lot of highway driving. My Max runs fine, no engine failures, just mostly suspendion work needed. I checked out my spark plug tubes, their clean, no oil. The oil that i found on the spark plugs were wet, not dried & burned up. I'll do a visual inspection of the rear valve cover gasket. Thanx alot everybody, any more advice or solutions are welcomed.

pimpsmatt

iTrader: (1)

will antiseize really do that to your pistons?

Sounbwoy

iTrader: (2)

No, it shouldn't. I have never used anti seize on my plugs and my pistons look the same as his. You're gonna get carbon somewhere if you have a car long enough. Over 200,000 miles should do it!

pimpsmatt

iTrader: (1)

is there any way to get clean that off without taking apart the engine?

kcryan

iTrader: (1)

Whats wrong with anti-seize?

sky jumper

NO! those were 2 separate statements. no cause & effect was implied. my only problem with the anti seize (at least the type I used) is that it flakes off and leaves residue behind (as shown in the photo) that must surely find its way into the combustion chamber when you take out your plugs. that's all. but it will not cause carbon build up.

matrix11229

I had wet oil on spark plug threads only. Is this normal ? (I have 189k miles)

JFP in PA

.

No. .....................................

KRRZ350

iTrader: (29)

Don't knock this idea until you have tried it----- See the problem and reason I haven't done it to my car w/170k is because I don't want to risk damaging the maf, however if you disconnect the maf so it's not hot and rev it to 2k it should still do the trick. Pop off the filter, grab a glass of water, and be very careful dumping water down in there while you rev the **** out of the motor, it's a fine line between getting as much water as possible without hydrolocking. Look what comes out of your tail-pipe while you do this, better yet have somebody stand there and smell it, you'll be amazed.

KRRZ350

iTrader: (29)

For those with oil on the plugs--PCV, head gasket, valve seals/guides, oil-control rings, worn cylinders. Someone chime in if there is something I'm forgetting here.

pcv-replace it, head gasket or rings/walls-compression test it, valve seals-blue smoke on start-up.

imho, since it is wet, I'm leaning towards a problem with the rings or walls, since oil entering through the pcv is more likely to be burned off, and you said you have no blue smoke of any kind. You should let it sit for a day or two, then perform both a dry & wet compression test (but put your old plugs in afterwards and take it out on the highway before you put your new plugs in) You can get a compression tester at sears for like $30 and it comes with instructions and info.

pimpsmatt

iTrader: (1)

so what exactly is the reason you havent done this to your car? you kinda contradict yourself

i think ill keep the carbon on my pistons rather than have a hydro locked engine.

BlackMamba

iTrader: (1)

Im having almost the same problems here, but i just get 0606, the engine vibrates alot when shifting...just replaced all the plugs for NGK iridum ix, still the same... there was oil in the 3rd plug, no oil
on spark tip. So what is the problem ?

- edit -
I just did a swap of coils from cyl1 to cyl3 and the CEL now points to 0608, cyl1, but in FSM EC-295 ( DTC-P0306 ) the list of probable causes does not mention the coil`s, please, let it be the coils

nlmaxima

iTrader: (10)

A reason to avoid anti-seize is it can cause false O2 sensor codes by contaminating the O2 sensor(can also kill the o2 sensor). Use a quality plug and you shouldn't have any seized plug issues. Also anti-seize shouldn't be used on any rubber parts since it may make them soft and cause the rubber to expand.

BlackMamba

iTrader: (1)

I bought the car almost a year ago, dont know if they used anti-seize, but the plugs where bosch alright, still, do i need to change the coils ? and or the valve cover gasket ?

MaximaDvr

I'm going to have to agree.

f550maranello2

iTrader: (2)

thats an old timers way of doing stupid stuff... DONT DO IT its bad for the motor and doesnt do ****... carbon build up happens because of age

Dan_E_Boi84

iTrader: (3)

Anti-sieze is a good thing to use as long as you don't use too much... All you need is a thin film on the threads...

L0R1DA

It's called a "combustion chamber cleaning". I have yet to do this on my car (although I plan to), but I have done it on a toyota corolla and an old pontiac. You'll need a shop. You get the combustion chamber cleaner at the dealership, just be careful with it if you decide to use this stuff because it will eat through anything non-metal, plastic, paint, skin etc. Also flammable as a ****. The idea is basically the same as a REAL injector cleaning, you basically detach the fuel line (and block off any fuel return line), attach the pressurized container (you better have the right adapter!!!) to your fuel rail, and run the car off of a pressurized container of this stuff until it runs out and the engine stalls. During the process all hell will pour out of the tailpipe, so I hope the shop you use has exhaust hoses. After about 5-10 minutes the engine will stall and you are basically done. Its really easy if you have the appropriate adapter and a shop-air-line. Good luck!

L0R1DA

Dude... terrible idea... ... dont pour liquid (especially H20) into your engine unless you want to do your piston rings, dilute your oil, short your plugs... Honestly you'd probably get better results pouring sand in.