new mk3 owner, spark plug galley full of oil!????
 

ok well my friend just purchased a 89 turbo.... he knew off the bat it didnt run, it was owned previously by an 80+ guy and one day driving home it died. he had it towed to the house and it sat ever since. well my friend came across it and, we were tryin to figure out what was wrong, well what we found was that when we removed the #1 spark plug the hole was filled with oil..... so we pulled the intake and the rest of the plugs and come to find out that the whole spark plug galley was filled to the top of the spark plug galley cover with oil.... well i was thinkin that it was filled due to the fact that the valve cover gaskets were bad, and the bolts were loose as hell, so it leaked in. sound correct? or something else? first Q is the galley cover removed by unscrewin the (i think its 4) big allen key bolts? and is the Galley cover suposed to have a gasket around it, it looks like it should. but when i came across a after market replacement cover it didnt have a gasket! so whats the deal am i on the right track here?

The stock was 6 phillips head screws holding each valve cover on. But those screws are shite. They have an allen screw upgrade which mightve been done on it. I've never seen aftermarket valve covers. And the gaskets arent attached to the valve covers. But this would be causing the problem of oil in the galley. Drain the oil from it, get new gaskets, and it'll be fine. It usually just causes the engine to sputter a little bit so there might be a bigger problem than that. The gaskets are about $25 each.

missunderstood me
 

no no!... u miss understood me! i know the valve cover gaskets are seperate then the covers...... i am talkin bout the spark plug galley cover, is that suposed to have a gasket on it also? and how is that removed.....

Ah.....Yea now i kno. Never taken it off but it looks like its just those massive 4 allen heads bolts holding it on. They dont need a gasket. Just the valve covers.

thanx much
 

kew kew thanx for ur help

I've seen this in my crx. Used to bounce the revs when driving and it got real bad one day so I went to replace the spark plugs and oil was way past the top of the plugs. Replaced the plugs and it went away. Now after a while of bouncing off the limiter it eventually died and now it doesn't run. Could never figure out what was going on.

The middle valve cover, or third valve cover as toyota says, doesn't need a gasket, it just covers the spark plug galley, as long as your plugs are screwed down to the proper tightness, and your high tension wires are pushed on the oil isn't why its not running becaus everything should be tightened. Absorb or vacuum out the oil and replace the plugs and wires, the car probably needs it anyways. To remove the valve cover just cruise over to harbor freight, they have a 6 piece 1/2" drive hex head socket kit for 6 bucks, use that to take out those 4 plugs, Each valve cover has its own gasket, insert the gasket with a little black silicone RTV and lay a super thin bead down on the head and screw down the valve covers. that will stop the oil problem. I have the brushed steel look 3rd valve cover from www.Suprasport.com and never had a problem, don't drive underwater or anything, but otherwise no big deal. The OEM thrid valve cover has more of a rubber skirt than a gasket. Don't over tighten anything, hexes are at 13ft lbs and the screws are 22"lbs. Then keep an eye on it after the next few drives and retighten if you see a sign of leakage. No problem.