spark plug found submerged in oil...

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Old 07-19-2014, 02:17 PM
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Exclamation spark plug found submerged in oil...

Any suggestions or ideas how to mitigate any oil seepage into the combustion chamber upon removal of the spark plug? I taped together some straws and sucked out a couple shot glasses worth of oil and splattered some more every where with the air hose. I have no doubt a teaspoons worth will make its way in there.
I dont want my brand new platinums all carboned up right out the gate. Is there something I could put down there to break it down. Or a spray or something I could prime the throttle body with?
I'm also somewhat concerned that this is more than a leaky valve cover..

The long story is a good read and has more background and details.
Thanks!
P.s. this is my first Ford..... felt like I should say that.
So Im in the process of changing plugs and COPs on My 01 5.4 Expedition developed a miss under low acceleration/light throttle and cruising above 45. It eventually flashed the MIL at me so I got ELM out and read P0305 and P0308. Being an optimist I drove it for a few more days in case it was a "bad tank" then I filled up and threw in some B12 just in case. The problem was somewhat intermittent more noticeable at times and others much less so. Fuel economy was not noticeably impacted at all and though I could occasionally "feel" it impacting performance after about 2500rpm the miss subsided and the truck would power through the gears just fine.
My long winded point is that I could tell I wasn't looking at two faulted coil packs from the get go and expected something else to be a miss no pun intended.
While I burned two tanks I was monitoring things with the ELM. The MIL only lit one other time despite occasionally antagonizing the situation and p0307 never came back just 303. Playing back the logs I observed the activity on the miss-fire monitor and realized that the codes must operate on a threshold. The ECU was observing miss-fires but not assigning a code or throwing a fault.
Having recently hit 200k miles and knowing the previous owners who were responsible from 45k to 195k I just knew it was still using the OE plugs and COPs. So I had amazon next day me some COPs and a (link below) nifty curved and offset ratchet with a floppy head that included magnetic spark plug sockets with built in 6 wobble extensions. I had been researching the issue the entire time and had absorbed a lot of information from this and other forums and consider myself well prepared to tackle this. However when I pulled the #6 COP and saw oil dripping from the boot I was surprised (but vindicated) and then I saw the oil pooled up in the bottom of the hole.
I was unaware of any oil leak on the truck - I had never smelt it being burnt or seen that any had leaked or noticed movement on the dipstick. I got worried and went in to google but as I typed in '2001 5.4 oil on the spark plugs' google completed my query as soon as I got to '.. oil on' so I was relieved. Sure enough some kinda common issue with a gasket.. apart the additional work all I needed to do was source the gasket. I found the gasket on amazon for $10 less than PepBoys and for 3.99 they'll overnight it (I anticipated the install to span a couple days anyways kind of intentionally) so I go back to pulling COPs and plugs and everything is moving along fine until I get to 8 and find that it boot dripping oil too. I look down the plug is damn near submerged and with what looks like only a quarter of an inch of the plug poking up. I was initially concerned about what would seep or drip down into the hole upon removing the plug in #6 but I did what I could with air and cotton ***** on a stick and put it out of my mind. This was a different story. I tapped together 3 bendy straws and on the first pull I had sucked oil up 1.5 straws worth of oil and figured it might be wise to go ahead and empty that draw out. Needless to say but there was still more down some of which I tried to slurp our and more of which I splatter every where with the air host. The rest of it though ran right into the combustion chamber when I pulled the plug. I have no doubt that between then and by the time I get out there to address the issue a good teaspoon of oil and whatever the f%^k will have dripped in there... I have no intention of pulling the head or anything else for that matter. So here we are. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Thanks in advance!


GearWrench 81229 3 Piece Spark Plug Ratchet Set - Socket Wrenches - Amazon.com GearWrench 81229 3 Piece Spark Plug Ratchet Set - Socket Wrenches - Amazon.com
I have a video I'll be sticking up on youtube and some pics should be in here soon too. once i find the attach button.
 
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Old 07-21-2014, 08:26 PM
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First fix the oil leak issue. For all the remaining oil in the spark plug holes, I would loosen up the old spark plugs and let whatever oil you can't get out drain in the combustion chamber. Tighten all the old plugs and put everything back together and start the engine. This will burn off any oil in the chambers with the old plugs. Once you think that the oil is gone, replace old plugs with new and no fouling new plugs. Good luck with everything.
 
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Old 07-25-2014, 08:12 PM
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stuff some sort of cloth down in there that is easy to remove. Soak up what you can. The rest should be fine. Make sure you clean the threads when the plug us out as it is crucial that you torque them properly with dry threads. If you have a 2v 5.4L torque the plug/plugs to 28ft/lbs dry.
 


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