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Plug covered in oil..

C

CraigslistProject

CEG'er
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
35
Location
East Bay, CA
I picked up this 96 contour GL, Zetec with 144k, auto, clean title, straight body for $600. lol

Seems to run decent, Shift's kind of hard. It likes to stall upon taking off and bucks threw up the gears, Bucks hard over 65 mph. Today i pulled the plugs, The cylinder closest to the timing belt was covered in oil and the rest where fine, Just slightly burn't and dry. It does not smoke at all. Sitting at title the temp slowly gets up there, But once driving it cools down.

Valve stem seals?
Bad piston ring?

Anyone ever heard of anything like this?

Thanks:shrug:
 
A valve cover gasket? Oil is getting in the Combustion chamber, What does a valve cover have to do with that?

I would be thinking either "blow-by" or Valve stem seals, The car does not smoke while driving. :crazy:

Thanks for the input
 
There is an O-ring around each spark plug well where the valve cover meets the head. When the O-ring wears out, the oil leaks into the spark plug hole from above the plug.


Oil is getting in the Combustion chamber, What does a valve cover have to do with that?
Click to expand...

^ how do you know it is in the combustion chamber?
 
blu_fuz said:
There is an O-ring around each spark plug well where the valve cover meets the head. When the O-ring wears out, the oil leaks into the spark plug hole from above the plug.




^ how do you know it is in the combustion chamber?
Click to expand...


Hmm, I did not know about the O-ring wear, I have mostly worked on JDM cars in the past.

When i pulled the plug, I took my LED light and looked in the chamber and there was standing oil sitting on top of the piston. IE oil in the chamber. Do Valve stem seals go bad on contour much? Oil can travel threw the bad seal and drop in the chamber as well.
 
blu_fuz said:
There is an O-ring around each spark plug well where the valve cover meets the head. When the O-ring wears out, the oil leaks into the spark plug hole from above the plug.
Click to expand...

The Zetec's do not have O rings that go around each sparkplug hole, but rather all four plugs are sealed off by a big rectangle, sort of like this (with the lines representing the gasket and the O's representing the spark plugs)...

------------------
|----------------|
------------------
|--O--O--O--O--|
------------------
|----------------|
------------------
 
Ok, gotcha.

Was there oil in the plug well before you pulled the plug out?
 
it is the valve cover gasket. I have owned 2 zetec contours and worked on over 8 other ones and a Zetec focus, and literally one of them needed a valve cover gasket. There was oil on the top of the piston because the oil leaks down from the valve cover gasket and pools right around the spark plus, you then pulled the spark plug out and the pooled oil around the spark plug fell into the combustion chamber.

The zetec rarely if not ever has valve stem seal or piston ring issues. In fact, I have never encountered one like that in my life.
 
blu_fuz said:
Was there oil in the plug well before you pulled the plug out?
Click to expand...

That is exactly why I asked if there was oil in the plug well before the plug was removed...... Apparently I didn't know anything about "these motors" because there is a rectangular gasket around all 4 plug wells instead of one o-ring per plug. Thanks for clearing it up alias.

Now the OP will probably post "uh, how do I change the gasket?".....


I also wanted to ask if you have a CEL(check engine light), it might help troubleshoot your "bucking" issues.
 
blu_fuz said:
That is exactly why I asked if there was oil in the plug well before the plug was removed...... Apparently I didn't know anything about "these motors" because there is a rectangular gasket around all 4 plug wells instead of one o-ring per plug. Thanks for clearing it up alias.

Now the OP will probably post "uh, how do I change the gasket?".....


I also wanted to ask if you have a CEL(check engine light), it might help troubleshoot your "bucking" issues.
Click to expand...

You need to get off your "high horse" I am not trying to be a dick, I just wanted other's feedback. I know how to change a valve cover gasket, Come on now, I know how to do pretty much anything, Besides harness work. I was just posting the symptoms on there, Before i start replacing things i don't need too. I am a Honda/Acura/Toyota/Lexus guy, Not a Ford guy, I have never heard of o-rings on a Domstic engine, Usually there are Valve stem seals (rings) If they are worn, Oil can seep into the chamber. If you have a bad ring, You get "blow-by". There are only 3 ways oil can get into the chamber and its not mixing with coolant.

Chill out bro :crazy:
 
AliasJerk said:
it is the valve cover gasket. I have owned 2 zetec contours and worked on over 8 other ones and a Zetec focus, and literally one of them needed a valve cover gasket. There was oil on the top of the piston because the oil leaks down from the valve cover gasket and pools right around the spark plus, you then pulled the spark plug out and the pooled oil around the spark plug fell into the combustion chamber.

The zetec rarely if not ever has valve stem seal or piston ring issues. In fact, I have never encountered one like that in my life.
Click to expand...

Odd, The oil on the Plug is on the bottom. The plug wire is dry, It's also dry on the inside on the plug wire. How could oil get to the "top" of the and inside the plug wire? If i am not mistaken when you pull the plug wire out, The area about the spark plug does not collect oil. Its clean and dry. The oil is on the bottom of the plug and on the threads, Oil in a puddle on the top of the piston.

What your telling me makes Zero sense. Simple because oil does not travel to the "top" of the plug wire and above the threads, Where there is the seal. That area of the motor is Hollow.
 
CraigslistProject said:
Let's give someone else a try, That knows a little more about theses motors.
Click to expand...


I'm here to help, not make you buy stuff you don't need. This is why we are here. Then you post that^^^^^, how do you want me to react?

Anyway, you are thinking too far into the motor when I say o-ring.

I am referring to the valve cover gasket. 2.5L engines have gaskets in the shape of an o-ring for the plug well areas and one big gasket for around the perimeter. I recently tore down a 1995 4cyl 2.0L contour and I thought I remembered seeing the same type of "o" shaped gaskets for the plug well area. Apparently I was wrong and it is a rectangle shape around all 4 plug wells. Same concept though.

The oil is 99% positively coming from the valve cover gasket being bad. The reason the oil is fresh on the piston is because more than likely there was oil in the plug well before you removed the spark plug. After you pull the plug out that oil falls directly onto the top of the piston therfore looking "wet" and "fresh".

Anyone who wants to chime in will when they are ready. You will get plenty of replies to get your situation figured out.

If the oil was in there because of a bad piston ring, the entire combustion chamber would look crappy/burned/gunked, not just wet with oil.
 
CraigslistProject said:
Odd, The oil on the Plug is on the bottom. The plug wire is dry, It's also dry on the inside on the plug wire. How could oil get to the "top" of the and inside the plug wire? If i am not mistaken when you pull the plug wire out, The area about the spark plug does not collect oil. Its clean and dry. The oil is on the bottom of the plug and on the threads, Oil in a puddle on the top of the piston.

What your telling me makes Zero sense. Simple because oil does not travel to the "top" of the plug wire and above the threads, Where there is the seal. That area of the motor is Hollow.
Click to expand...

For one there is no need to become defensive, being rude to joe about him giving his 2 cents about the issue then saying "I will wait for someone who knows more about it" doesnt make people want to help, especially Joe. In fact, he even asked if the oil was on the threads and you wrote him off. What I said made zero since because you never said anything along the lines of "there is no oil on the threads in the head" you said "there is oil in the combustion chamber" figuring out problems always comes down to details.

Further more, you said there is oil in the combustion chamber, you didnt say it was on the tip of the spark plug you didnt say you looked down the hole for the spark plug and that the threads were dry. Both Joe and I gave you advice based on previous experience and in dealing with oil on the spark plug, 9 times out of 10 it actually is a valve cover gasket.

In this case, however, if you really are seeing oil coming from inside of the combustion chamber then its time to tear down the motor and figure out where the issue resides. The only other likely thing I can think of with the zetec motor is a head gasket or a borderline failing head gasket allowing for oil to get into the combustion chamber, however like you said this usually means coolant mixes with the oil, and that doesn't seem to be happening. I still agree with Joe, it doesnt make sense that the oil is wet in there, usually its burn or corroded because of burning the oil off, not just wet in the combustion chamber, which makes the issue a little more difficult to diagnose. Like I said in an earlier post, valve cover gasket failure is common the zetec motor.

And Joe, you are partially right about the "o-rings" the duratec has separate o-rings around the spark plug holes that are individually replaceable, the zetec has the o-rings built right into the valve cover gasket.
 
LOL

I was not being Rude or Defensive. Joe was TELLING me it was O rings, He was corrected by you. Then i said what i said. If Joe want's to take offense to that. I am sorry, I am a grown man, I don't take offense to anything on the interweb. Why would i take advice from just 1 person that does not even know what he was initially talking about? Simple mistake and you corrected him. I think he will live another day.

I did give Detail. Re read.:crazy:
 
It is your valve cover gasket. I guarantee it. You had oil in the spark plug valleys and when you pulled the plugs, the oil dropped into the combustion chamber. I have never, EVER seen a Contour Zetec with blue smoke out the exhaust (burning oil).
 
Good luck with the repairs. I might get fiesty, but I don't hold onto it, today is another day. I hope you figure it out. - JOE
 
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