LS/VTEC with oil in spark plug cylinder

[Masonj123]

Hey everyone,

I just bought one of my friends 97 hatchback with has a ls vtec motor in it, it has a ls bottom and a gsr top. The motor only has around 20-30,000 miles on it , but when I popped the hood the other day as it felt like I the car lost some power since the vtec was not kicking in, in noticed oil on the head next to the 4th cylinder. so I pulled out the spark plug wire and say some oil in the spark plug cylinder, I was wondering if anyone has any idea of what this could be? I have had some people tell me that it could be a bad spark plug and gasket to worn valve guides/seals or worn out piston rings. I will try and get some picks of the motor up this weekend if I can, let me know if you have any idea of what this could be. I am not sure what the internals of the engine are yet, I am going to try to get a list by this weekend as well. Thanks

 

[matthewoleschuk]

i had the same thing happen to my toyota and it was a piston ring. i continued to drive it being like this and eventually i sent it off to the junk yard. my best suggestion for now would be to run a hotter spark plug and get it taken car of asap

 

[Masonj123]

Alright thanks, I will put a new spark plug in there so I can drive it to a friends house to get the engine out and change the piston rings.

 

[Wilshire]

sounds like a bad piston ring to me. but in order to have oil on the plug all the rings on that piston would need to be shot. If vtec is not kicking in it could also very likely be the vtec conrotller/sylinoid.

 

[JDMBOOSTEDEG6]

IF ITS ACTUALLY ON THE SPARK PLUG (THE WHITE PART) ITS A BAD VALVE COVER GASKET IF ITS UNDER THE SPARK PLUG DONT DRIVE IT AT ALL PULL THE HEAD OFF AND CHECK IT OUT.. I WOULDNT BOTHER WITH RE BUILDING THE LS I WOULD JUST GET A FRESH ONE. OUT HERE IN CALi LS MOTORS GO FOR ABOUT 150$

 

[tunerboy]

You need to do a compression test first before you start pulling anything. Check to see that the compression in the suspect cylinder is consistent with the others. if it is not the case then put a couple of drops of oil in that cylinder and see if the compression dramatically improves. if so, then it is the piston rings and if not, then it might be the head gasket. Also, a loss of oil pressure will cause vtec not to kick in so solving the oil on your spark plug problem may solve that problem.

 

[dtob]

It sounds like the spark plugs seal on the valve cover. Buy a valve cover gasket kit, replace all the gaskets and see if its gone. If the car doesn't smoke I wouldn't think its the piston rings.