91 Toyota Camry: Oil on outside of plugs... Why?

I am checking various systems in my 91 Camry LE because it read high hydrocarbons in my state emissions test (it failed). One of the things I decided to do was the check the compression on the cylinders. BTW, the car has 181k original miles on the engine and still runs well. While the cylinders read good compression (between 145 and 155# on the cylinders), I found oil on the outside of the plugs (exterior to the combustion chambers) in the front bank of cylinders. The rear bank of plugs did not show the same problem with oil. I can't believe that it would be oil "blow-by" as I wouldn't expect that it would occur on all three cylinders in the front bank but not in the rear. How could this happen?

Al Kondo

Reply to
Al Kondo
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Sloppy filling during an oil change.

Reply to
TCS

I'm not familiar with this engine layout, but it may have been able to drip in there because of a leaking valve cover or cam cover gasket.

Oil covering the spark plugs/wires could cause a miss because of voltage leakage, so that may be why it failed.

Reply to
Robert Hancock

Reply to
bobby

Reply to
Dave Shepherd

You should have the same problem I had with my 71 Corona.

There are O rings around the spark plugs that prevent oil leaks onto the plug.

You have to remove the head.

There should be LARGE hex head flat nuts holding the head down.

The hex nuts are around the plug holes and will be more visible upon removing the plug wire from the plug.

Reply to
Conase

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