Oil on top of the spark plugs

[xintersecty]

Hi,

Long time no see. I have been busy this summer. Here are my excuses

1) Worked picked up and I had to get a lot of projects done
2) I moved into a new house
3) I got a boat and had to work on the boat
4) I got a hot girl friend and took her out on said boat

I just now getting to take care of my cars. Changed the oil in the Aveo three weeks ago and ripped and put back in the transmission on ford ranger. So today and lunch I replaced the spark plugs and wires as they are due for service. I am at 96000 miles.

I noticed on cylinders 2 through 3 (looking at engine left to right) I noticed oil on the spark plugs. I cleaned it out best I could and put the new wires and plugs back into the engine. Some oil did get into the clyinders. After I started the engine the blue smoke of death rolled out the exhaust and then cleared up.

I have a couple of ideas
1) I could have spilled some oil when I changed the oil
2) the head gasket might be leaking
3) The oil cap was not tight enough

I am thinking 1 or 3. I will remove the engine cover later this week to make sure stuff is still ok. Any other ideas?

And I am glad to be back!

[Letni]

4) Valve Cover Gasket

Everyone raise your hand for #4.

-Louis

[xintersecty]

Louis, thanks for the suggestion. I forgot about that too. I ran the car 80 miles and it maintained about 27 MPG HWY. That sucks! So there is definantely something bad going on. I have an other long trip tonight and some downtime on Thursday before yet an other long trip. I will be able to pull the engine cover and check for the head gasket leaking.

[xintersecty]

Today at lunch I cleaned up around the valve cover gaskets. I am making a hard drive tonight and I will be able to see leakage around there. So If I need to replace the valve cover gaskets, is there any adjustments to the valves?

[ontarian_frog]

There is no valve adjustment to be made to the 1st and 2nd gen Aveo with e-tec ii engine.

[FlaAveo5]

Hi,

Long time no see. I have been busy this summer. Here are my excuses

1) Worked picked up and I had to get a lot of projects done
2) I moved into a new house
3) I got a boat and had to work on the boat
4) I got a hot girl friend and took her out on said boat

I just now getting to take care of my cars. Changed the oil in the Aveo three weeks ago and ripped and put back in the transmission on ford ranger. So today and lunch I replaced the spark plugs and wires as they are due for service. I am at 96000 miles.

I noticed on cylinders 2 through 3 (looking at engine left to right) I noticed oil on the spark plugs. I cleaned it out best I could and put the new wires and plugs back into the engine. Some oil did get into the clyinders. After I started the engine the blue smoke of death rolled out the exhaust and then cleared up.

I have a couple of ideas
1) I could have spilled some oil when I changed the oil
2) the head gasket might be leaking
3) The oil cap was not tight enough

I am thinking 1 or 3. I will remove the engine cover later this week to make sure stuff is still ok. Any other ideas?

And I am glad to be back!

Well I had the exact thing happen to me on my 2006 Aveo LS. I changed the plugs and when I took the cover off, I was freaked out to see oil. It was about a teaspoon amount at most. I had all the gaskets replaced at my Chevy dealer about 3 months earlier, so no gaskets are leaking, (my first mechanical repair ever), I think that over the years of changing oil I must have spilled tiny amounts of oil and it went into that 'tray' area above the sparkplugs, I kindof thought that is why it was there. I also had a drop or two of oil go into 2 or 3 of the sparkplug chambers, and when I started it up the blue smoke came out for all of 5 seconds and it was over. I have taken the cover off since then and it is bone dry, even after an oil change.

I just wiped down the 'tray' that had the oil was on, stuck some papertowels into the sparkplug chambers before I took out the plugs, and then after they were out to soak up any oil that was in them, (it was a minute amount), and a drop or two of oil must have gotten onto the piston, and it just burned off after the first start up. Havent had a problem since, never have had any blue smoke before the plug change, or since. I only changed the plugs because I wanted to put in a new set of Bosch Plus 4's,...that is what I was running on since the second day I bought the car,....they were dirty, but I also drive 100% in the city, so I dont get the engine hot enough to burn the carbon off the plugs. I think the first plug was the only one to not have any carbon on it...and the 4th one was the worst,I assume due to the angle of the engine.