With the plugs being covered in oil it is a good bet that your valve cover gasket is leaking. I'm guessing there are four little gasket rings around each of those spark plug wells that seal the valve cover to the head. When those leak the spark plug wells fill up with oil and foul out your spark plugs.
You're right Kevin those tube seals are a problem with those deep well plugs it can make plugs foul early from top of the plug to coil contact being soaked in oil all the time. The Felpro gasket set comes with them...just saying.
Yeah, the gaps look plenty wide in the pic and the plugs prolly did need changing, but colors look good on them indicating good things still going on in that engine internally to the cylinders anyway.
Agreed Mike the burn looks even and healthy. I would say there is no compression or firing problem whatsoever.
"Drenched in oil" is indicative of an "O" ring failure, but not evidence of plug failure. The "O" rings only keep the oil out of the plug galleys. Once it is there it cannot really do harm unless the plug is not well seated. "O" rings are cheap and easy to replace.... I think. (been wrong before) I had a Toyota Corolla with the same problem and it never lead to a plug not firing. I agree, the electrodes do look pretty good... but that doesn't mean that one of them could have failed at the core. Your having fixed the problem simply replacing them proves that. As for buying another wagon... I have no opinion. You see.... I am a single/divorced guy with three adult children. No car for more than a year till I picked up that '58 Ford Wagon. Needed a lot of work and I almost spent as much fixing it as I it cost buying the thing! But it's darned fun since I have few demands on my life. So my story is of little help. Good luck with what ever you decide X.
I think I should also mention that the old plugs didn't seem like they were on tight enough. I could practically have taken them out by hand. Jairus, I am moving to a place where having a car isn't exactly necessary but would still be wanted. We are only selling our car, or wanting to, because we needed the money. The more $$$ you have the easier it is.
Way to go getting her fixed :2_thumbs_up_-_anima As said the oil is from the leaking o-rings.. but not an immediate concern. If it starts to act up again its probably the oil in the plug well. Quick fix being some brake cleaner.. pull the plugs and spray them off, spray off the end of the wires and a quick squirt down each plug well. Had to do that from time to time on the Satty.. about 10 min to do. As for plugs being loose.. it happens sometimes. The heat cycles of an engine can loosen plugs or they may not have been torqued properly. Happened to a friends car once where the plug actually blew out of the engine and disappeared on the highway :confused: but that was more divine intervention I think since they were on their way to the observation deck of the world trade tower the morning of 9/11. Good luck with the move and whatever you need to do to make it happen. It'd be rough without a car but public trans there is very good
Thank you, Dewey, for sending me your extra O2 socket, as well as a cool NAPA key chain. As soon as the rain stops and I have free time (looking like Friday will be the day) I will be installing a new upstream O2 sensor.
