I am changing my knock sensor, and rear valve cover gasket, and I noticed a lot of oil build up, wet oil, on the intake manifold, and the lower part of the plenum...

I'm thinking my valve seals are leaking... causing what little amounts of oil are in the chambers (asuming my rings leak a little, they dont leak that bad bc I'm not pouring out smoke) to be blown into the intake manifold during compression.... I have not done a leak-down test yet....

Anyone have any ideas??

 

there can also be a lot of blow-by from the PCV valve and also through the other valve cover vents. it's pretty common. not much to worry about.
A lot of the nasty stuff you see on the manifolds is varnish that's built up over time though. clean it off and it'll still be clean in another 30k miles.

 

Look at the difference in build up between the different banks.... think the front bank is running rich?
http://members.***.net/mp3car/1.JPG

look at all the oil/carbon build up, especially look how after tha plenum has sat in this position for an hour or so, the oil has run down from the walls of this duct and pooled
http://members.***.net/mp3car/2.JPG

Here notice the "rear" 3 ports, which go to the front bank, havea lot more build up as well...
http://members.***.net/mp3car/3.JPG


Think all this looks acceptable? 92SE 108k miles.

 

you should see how dirty my 165k mile engine was.

i think your in good shape.
(just clean it )

(oh yeah, your valvetrain looks clean as well. Nice clean semi low mile engine

 

That's not too bad. yeah, the oil isn't something you like to see, but it's not that bad... it does look like you're getting quite a bit of blow-by and stuff out of the valve covers, but it's nothing I'd be too alarmed about. that's normal wear and tear on a car with 100k+ miles.

 

okay! Thanks guys!

Now I gotta go find some new fuel hose! heh... the hoses going to the rails were so hard there was no way to get them off without mutilating them. Oh well.... isn't car work fun