When I pulled the last plug under the firewall drivers side it was coverd in oil. What could have caused this and what sort of damage could it have caused.

after a close inspection it looks like the oil may have blown through the plug.

Take a look and tell me what you think.

 

(1) I can't believe the electrode still looks that good. I would of thought it would have been black and oil soaked as well.
(2) The plug must have been firing ok, otherwise you would have had a misfire code kick on the CEL.
(3) The only way the oil can get up to that plug is if your rings on that cylinder are shot ang blowing by the rings and oil pressure is pushing it up and by the threads.
(4) Any chance oil was accidently seeped/poured down in the plug bore and you didn't catch it and when you pulled the plug it got down on the threads when pulling the plug out. It would have been nice if you could have shopvac'ed the oil out before you pulled the plug.

Honestly, in 30 years, I have never seen a plug look like that, but keep in mind, I am a DIY'er and family/friend wrench.

Hopefully BigBronc,Dyno,Brew,JMC,Matt or some of the other more experienced ppl on this forum will give you the answer.

By the way, I see you were using copper anti-sieze on the new MC plugs, I'm pretty sure you want to use the nickle anti-sieze on that year.

How many miles on the truck, ppl will want that answer to provide you better answers.

Good Luck,
TJK

 

Thanks, It has 136,000 miles on it. Those plugs were the orginal and this thing has had oil presure issues in the past before. The oil light would come on especially when cold and when you would come to idle some times at stop signs the light would come on. We took it to the dealer and they did god knows what it around 100K so about 30k ago and that quit doing it.

Now for the kicker. I pulled the plugs on the other side of the block and 3 more were similiar not as bad but had some gunky oil looking stuff in there.

The reason I changed the plugs also was to try and eliminate the codes it was throwing. Lean bank 1 and 2 it also started getting pretty crappy gas milage crappier than normal. From about 13-14 to around 11 no power loss though.



I just put those new plugs in reset the codes and so far no check engine light and it has a smoth idle. However my other problem still exists where I still have the battery light on and it has a new battery and I just had the alternator checked and its putting out 16.4 volts at peak and passed. If I turn the headlights and the heater the enging stumbles some and acts like it wants to die. Probably completly seperate issues but you never know.

 

How was it running? - on all 8?

Seriously, by the looks of that 5/8, you didn't blow out the chambers before starting. Oil came from the outside IMO - some how. ??

If the chambers weren't cleared first - anything can happen now. Not good.

0 anti- seize on those plugs. There isn't need for it with 4 thread heads. Up to you.

 

Looks like typical spill after an oil change. That is if it was on the pass side. I just re-read the post and you said it was on the driver's side? I'm at a loss.
Any other time that I've seen that, it is always due to spilled oil on the pass side. It just runs down and collects. I can't think of anything that would cause that on the driver's side. If the valve cover was leaking, it wouldn't leak at the top, it would leak on the exhaust. You're sure that it was on the driver's side????

 

Battery light is probably an inline fuse. Chase the wire harness from the alternator, should lead you to a 20 amp mini fuse by the fire wall.

 

Some one left oil in the holes or you have a leak in the cam cover gasket. Those oil soaked plugs do not shows signs of burning oil. Google oil fouled plugs and you will see what an oil fouled plug looks like.

 

Thanks guys, yeah I did blow each of the holes out before I removed those old plugs.

I think your are right about the spilled oil. I have been known to spill some when filling it. I didn't realize it was collecting there though. I also power wash my engine a few times a year to keep it clean.

Not sure how it got on the drivers side but only 1 plug over there had the problem. The oil was clean it relativly it wasn't black and burnt. Also like you said none of the electrodes were wet they all had normal signs of wear.

It ran great after the new plugs and no codes yet.

 

Alternator harness fuse (green) -

 

I would have the alternator checked again. 16.4 volts is too high even at peak. Our truck's regulators keep it below that. 14.4 Volts is standard and Ford says as high as 15 is OK.

 

Again I cannot explain it. When I started it up after installing the new belt today I took it for its first test drive after the tune up and it ran smoth and great. Much better than before it had hesitation before and its gone.

Before I left I checked the battery voltage and it was 12.79 off, 14.4 running.

I took it for a drive of about 4 miles and when I got home in the driveway the battery light came on again. I again checked battery voltage and it was 12.5 off, and 11.6 running. That to me sounds like an alt going bad do you guys concure?

 

Sounds like a bad alt to me.

Phil

 

Well I bought a new 130amp alt last night and no battery light. No check engine light. I think I got it fixed.


Thanks guys I was pretty worried when I first seen that oil. The Drivers side appears to have come from a leaky PVC hose at the valve cover. Fixed that too and its running great have 45 miles on it since and all good so far.