Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Oil/crud on middle spark plugs !!??

I have a 98 Contour with the 2.0L Zetec. The car has been consuming about a quart of oil for every 300 miles! No smoke from the exhaust. I pulled the month old plugs yesterday and noticed that the middle two (2+3) were again coated with crud, while the two outer plugs (1+4) were like new. When I replaced the plugs 4 weeks ago, I noticed oil on the threads of the center two.

I have a serious case of pinging and now I'm sure it's related to carbon buildup from this oil leak.

Somewhere I read that sometimes just retorguing the intake manifold bolts will stop a leak. Any thoughts? It is possible for this to be a crack in the head??

One other symptom... on startup I get some smoke. Could this be head oil drain passages being clogged? How would I check/clean them ?

Oil consumption can be from a number of conditions. Being that you have a four cylinder, the oil leak is not coming thru the intake manifold. You could have broken rings, leaking valve seals or perhaps a head gasket leaking oil into the cylinders from an oil supply port. Do a compression test to check for a broken ring. The other two can't be checked quite so easily, but I think can de deduced by elimination of other causes. Good luck!

Since it is in both center cylinders, I suspect it is a head gasket. Can you retorque the head bolts without taking off the cams ?

FORD Cylinders are numbered sequentially on both sides,
so a FORD V6 is numbered 1-2-3 on one side and 4-5-6 on the opposite side.

GM numbers their Cylinders Odd on one side and Even on the other,
so a GM V6 is numbered 1-3-5 on one side and 2-4-6 on the opposite side.

whoa before trying valve head repairs try the valve cover gasket especiaaly if stick the wrench in the hole and comes out with oil on it or if there is oil on the threads that genreally indicates the oil is comming from the top of the plugs. this is a lot cheaper and lot less hassel when head gaskets blow you know it its not just samll problem that gets worse. this type of oil lekage is very common amongst high milleage DOHC 4cyl of all makes. it happened to my mystique and three other DOHCS ive owned in the past. (Satrun, mitsu, iszuzu) hope ths is your problem and if it is just rember dont over think problems that can ussally cost alot of money.

oh one other thing if you smoke on the start up and if it just valve cover gasket and you only had the plugs in for month it probably just let oil in the cylinder when you changed plugs if was a head gasket you would have discoloroed oil or oil in your cooloant one of the two it also could be your valve seats are worn. but highly unlikely the burnt ring idea is also plossible but let me ask you this are seeing a lot of oil coming through your PCV valve is so check air to fule mixture. i had this happen once the air to fule mixture was off causing my cylinders to carbon up and putting to much preasure int he crank case thus letting out a lot of oil through the pcv valve just a thought.

If you do beleive you have a gasket problem, retorquing generally does not work. Replace the gasket if it is bad and check head and block surfaces for warpage while you're in there.

1. Explain how a valve cover gasket only "smokes" at startup when the engine is cold?
Now a valve stem seal has those tell-tale characteristics, but the smoke comes out the exhaust.

2. If any oil had gotten in there from a VCG leak it would - 1. Be very small in amount 2. Be burnt off the first time the engine was started & not be fresh or likely even visible after 1 month!

3. Not true. A head gasket can blow in numerous ways. Into a water jacket is but one of them. Oil gallery, between cylinders, out the side, etc...

4. The valve seats seal the valve to the cylinder head. There is no oil involved!

5. If the PCV system was malfunctioning every plug would be contaminated as would the entire intake system after the PCV entry point.

As mentioned I would look at a bad head gasket or valve stem seals. It is unlikely the head is cracked unless the car was over heated.