Hey Guys,

Well Like the title says, today I was doing some maintenance and found Oil puddled in the center rear spark plug socket. The Coil tube was covered in it.

Ill try to give as much information as I can to help out, and any advice or diagnostic would be greatly appreciated, Im really worried right now

Background:

When I first got the car it didnt have this problem, ran fine
I never noticed any difference in performance over the course of its life
Recently My insurance ran out so the car has been sitting while Ive been doing work on it, Polishing IM, cleaning misc parts. Doing a front end swap etc..

Description of problem.

the center rear spark plug socket or tube was filled with oil and the coil was covered in oil as we removed it. the plus socket right beside it had a little oil in it but just a few drops. My oil is going on about 5000 KM now and still is very clean and the level is right

Here are some pictures, any help is great. thanks

 

1. take off upper intake manifold
2. take off valve cover
3 Replace gasket and spark plug groment

 

 

ya replace the gasket. if you want extra protection, use some good permatex sealant on the new gasket.

 

Ok thanks. will do. Ive just got the IM off now.

 

Make sure you clean the spark plug tube real nice. Get a gasket kit that includes the upper intake manifold gasket as well.

-matt

 

you got three good answers.!!!

 

and a nice little pic

 

I've got the same problem. Is there a gasket kit I can get, or do I need to order each individual part? Are there other things I should replace while I've got it all apart anyway?

 

This is why I love forums! Even if you can't find answers online you can always ask and someone will know. Great answers guys!

 

yes there is a kit i dont know where to find it off hand but i would try rockauto.com for a start. and i belive it comes with both gaskets for vc all the spark plug gromets and a gasket for the upper intake.

if you have a bad knock sensor it would be a good time to replace it cause its a pia if you have the upper on. also it wouldnt be a bad idea to clean your egr valve while its off

 

Ive just got the IM off and am working my way to the source, Once again great help guys, narrowed it down right to the problem,

You can get a gasket kit off ebay for about 60-70 bucks. but I dont know If i'd trust the quality, the nice thing is it comes with just about every gasket imaginable for the heads/valve covers/ intake manifolds

I just got the parts I need from the local Nissan dealers, most genuine nissan parts are the best quality Ive found.

I got the valve cover gasket, I set of those spark plug gromets (or isolators/ tube gasket, what ever you want to call it) and an Intake manifold gasket for about 35 bucks, how ever they do also like me over at the dealer haha.

Ill post pics of my findings later tonight if I get finished

 

I personally would go with OEM gaskets. Non-oem gaskets tend to be cheap and not that great IMO.

 

Haha, I appreciated that pic actually.

I printed it out and circled the parts because the parts guy kept saying that there is no such part (the little spark plug tube gromets)

 

!!

The idiot at my local Nissan parts dept. denied that those parts existed, and spoke to me like I know nothing about my car. After explaining it to him for 3-5 minutes, he agreed to go in the back and look for them. Needless to say, he came back with the parts, and a stupid "well I'll be damned" look on his face. It was pretty satisfying, actually.

 

Well As promised I have some pictures and results,

After hours of annoying fighting with the IM getting it off, lol
I found the problem





The little isolator or gromet had actually lost its seating and fell down the tube a bit letting oil freely into the Spark plug tube.

All I need now is to get a new one of those and put it in.

 

Nice job man. Clean out that EGR guide tube before you reinstall the IM!

 

Now i was wondering . Isnt that grommet suppose to come off without too much of a fight?

 

I though that maybe, but when I tried to take one out of my wrecked max they are really lodged in there. I couldnt get it out. Im examining this part and trying to figure out if it actually needs replacing or just re-seating. It doesnt look to have any physical damage.

 

whenever i get a gasket i just get oem. its much safer that way. you dont have to second guess the integrity of it.


yeah before i did the 00vi swap i had a bad one of these. i never fixed it though(but doing the swap actually gave me some incentive to fix it). well i ghetto fixed it and am not so proud of it now. i used teflon tape on the spark plug to keep the oil out of the cylinder. but it worked out.

before i really got into my max i had a mechanic to change it the first time. and he didnt know what i was talking about either. so since its my dads mechanic i gave the picture to my dad to show to him. so he wound up changing it and only charging like 60 bucks or something like that which isnt bad at all. but maybe about a month later the max was missing alot. and sure enough same problem.

I swear i dont trust mechanics anymore!!! ever since then i have done my own repairs on my max. and i have to say ive done pretty good for myself.

also dont forget the grounds that go to the front of the upper IM.

anyways im glad you figured it out and hopefully now you wont need a rag when your changing your plugs

 

but i already circled them

 

clean that EGR as well buddy that thing looks clogged

 

I did the same job on the last year. It took me 4 hours at first. I put the gasket on wrong side so I did the same job 4 times. Just make sure which side to go.