1989 toyota supra turbo ---Oil in spark plug galley
 

hi, i"m a newbie here so heres my problem, my car is very hard to start when cold so after a little probing i found out that my spark plug exteriors where full of oil so i think my cylinder head cover is leaking around the spark plugs. my question is are the seals around the spark plugs o-rings or just gaskets? my parts store doesn't list them so i"m thinking there a dealer part only, but if they are o-rings i have a wide selection of them.
thanks

This is posted in the section for questions and comments about the forum itself. You want the MKIII section. This problem is covered in the MKIII FAQ sub-section. I'll move this thread to the MKIII section for you.

the valve covers are two separate pieces. change the gaskets and see what happens after.

There are 2 possible options as to where you are leaking oil.

1. Valve (Cam) Cover Gaskets
These are contoured rubber perimeter gaskets that fit into the channels in the Cam Covers. The bolts for the Cam Covers do not need to be very tight.

2. No 3. Cylinder Head Cover
This is the metal thing that is probably cracking and breaking that your spark plug wires seat on. There are several very large female hex bolts in this cover. These bolts are typically where the oil leaks from.

On my car, a friend of mine used "Permatex Indian Head Gasket Shellac" ( Part Number 20539 ) on the bolts as well as replacing my No.3 Cylinder Head Cover ( $45 from Toyota 2008 ) and I never had another problem with oil in the Spark Plug Galley

Indian Head Gasket Shellac comes in a small brown bottle and most parts stores have it in their Permatex section.

There is a third place it can come from... That's the PCV plumbing. If you've got severe blow-by issues the quantity of oil passing through the crankcase ventilation system can be quite high and quickly degrade the couplings giving the oil another escape route than the intake tract. It's not common and usually takes quite some time but it does happen often enough that you shouldn't disregard the possibility.

I'm pretty sure this is also covered in the FAQ topic on the subject... but if you guys want to keep wasting your breath feel free. If you have new information to add to a FAQ topic, post it to the FAQ and a moderator will add it if it's accurate. All the duplicate threads gives us just one more thing to keep an eye on to make sure bad info isn't being passed on and I'm probably going to just start deleting them with prejudice. It's not like there are too many pages to look through that section quickly.