oil on spark plug

Before you panic or spend lots of money--wait about one week and remove that spark plug and see if you see more oil on the plug. It's possible that the oil was left over from a prior oil change. If this is true, it's my guess that you won't see oil on the plug. On the other hand, if you see oil on that plug once a week for a month--repost and we can tell you the possible causes.

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No need to mention the model or year or mileage . . . Just do a search of this group and you'll find MANY recent explanations of this very common Honda problem. (It's nothing to do with sloppy oil changes, BTW)

'Curly'

Where was the oil? On the electrode in the combustion chamber? Or was it on the top of the plug where the spark plug wire connects to it? If the latter scenario is the case, then it's probably the spark plug tube seals at the valve cover. These dry up and get compressed over time and then fail to seal. Try replacing these first and clean up any oil. Recheck the plugs after a week or two. If there's still oil, then you may need the lower spark plug tube seals. These lower seals go between the cam towers and the cylinder head. If you wind up replacing these, then you should probably put in a new cam seal as well. Check the factory service manual for the proper torque specs on the cam tower bolts. It's also helpful to back off the valve adjustment screws until they're flush with the bottom of the rocker arms. This helps prevent the screws from catching on the top of the valve stems and bending a valve when you're putting the rocker arm assembly back on the head.

Eric

Sorry I failed to mention mileage (98000) and year (97) CR-V. The oil in on the threads, not where the plug wire attaches. thanks

Oil was on the threads on only one plug, not on top of plug. Thanks for response.

It's definitely the valve cover spark plug tube seals. Go to autozone and the whole valve cover gasket replacement set should only cost you around $30-$40. You can probably install it yourself to because there's not much to it. No gasket sealer goop is required with a Felpro gasket set.

-jeff

On 2nd thought that's a CRV engine which is like the acura integra engine so you may need to use gasket sealer at certain spots in the head. I'm not sure. Look into that.