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Oil in spark plug wells 2011 1.4l eco turbo

9437 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Jtfcruze92
Hey everyone, I recently replaced my spark plugs, and when I was pulling the cylinder 1 out. The hole where the spark plug threads are were flooded with oil. Cylinder 1 and 2 had the most oil, but 3 and 4 were covered but not flooded. After I took the first two out the oil went down, so thats why 3 and 4 didn't look as bad. My car runs fine, except for when I start it after it being off for a while. It vibrates for the first 5 to 10 seconds after starting. But it doesn't do that until it hasn't been started for several hours. Other than that it drives fine. No trouble codes what so ever. Just wondering if anyone would know what the issue is. I think it's the spark plug tube seals, but i can't find a diy on how to replace those. My autoparts store said it might be the valve cover gasket. I ordered a new valve cover gasket. It comes with the tube seals. I can find lots of diy on replacing the valve cover gasket. Any advice or knowledge would help thanks :)
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Better to replace the entire camshaft cover as they call it. last time I checked was 40 bucks on ebay. 70 inch pounds of torque as I recall for all 15 bolts. Those bolts were always working loose, but never got around to putting a dab of Loctite on the threads. Plastic is the problem.

Ha, tend to go way back, flatheads were never a problem, neither was my 41 Chevy with an inline six and OHV's no cams, had deep wells. 49 Olds V-8 sure had this problem, stamped steel valve covers with a cork gasket, was always dripping oil on those red hot exhaust manifold, smoke, but never and engine fire. Still have two of these engines, took Fel-Pro to solve this age old problem.

Maybe Fel-Pro could solve this plastic camshaft cover problem, GM sure can't, yours could still be covered under warranty. And is putting plastic on top of a 375*F head really a good idea? Coolant temperature is 220*F but also connected to a very hot exhaust manifold with good thermal conductivity. With all the warranty repairs, GM could have saved money by using aluminum.
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Yeah the cover is fine it's the recall version so I don't think it's that, I'm thinking spark plug tube seals. And my warranty is out of date it was the 5 year 100,000 mile one, my car only has 67,000, but gm told me that it expired cuz of the year. And the chevy dealerships warranty was only 3,000 miles or 90 days which I'm past both unfortunately. Mind you I just bought it in march with 64,000. But I got other warranties but not sure they cover this issue... car doesn't shoot any codes, It runs fine except for a cold start which i think is when the plugs are flooded with oil. It's not in the chrome part of the wells. The oil is in the thread part where the plug is screwed in. I pulled the plug off and cylinder 1 was full of oil. Same with 2, 3 , and 4 but the oil went down once I opened them all up. 1 and 2 were the worst. The valve cover seal looks fine I wasn't noticing any oil coming from there. Maybe I need to take a more thorough look. The chevy dealer told me that my cold rough starts were ok as long as codes weren't popping up. But that seems like some bs lol im pretty sure that issue is from my spark plugs being flooded with motor oil.. and when I mean rough cold start I mean like when i first fire it up, it starts right away but the engine vibrates and the exhaust note sounds like it's glugging it occurs for about 5 to 10 seconds, if I give it gas right off it doesn't do that.
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And no the idea of plastic engine parts baffles me as well. I wish they would make aluminum replacements might be better and last longer. But yeah I'm thinking fel pro gasket might solve the issue it comes with the plug tube seals too. Just need to know how to replace those. Can't find any info on it.. not even in my repair manual for it. Just valve covers I can find stuff on that all day long...
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