My 92 Accord has been doing this for a couple of months now. When I start it up there is a misfire and I have to give it some gas to get a four cylinders going. It is usually worse the first time I start the car for the day. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all. I do have oil in the spark plug holes. Could the oil in there be causing the misfire possibly? After the car is started, it runs perfectly. And as a secondary question, when the valve cover is removed, are the gaskets destroyed, valve cover and o-rings? I had the valve cover gasket and o rings replaced. The lower seals must be the culprit.

 

I had a similar experience, missing on startup, w/ my 94Ex. It would generally happen for a warm start after sitting for a few minutes from a fully warmed shutdown. First cold start of day was OK. Problem was failed head gasket allowing water to get to spark plugs.

Oil in the spark plug wells might cause a miss if it got really bad, but I've had cars run for some time w/ substantial oil in the wells w/o missing.

Valve cover gaskets and oring seals are not damaged by removing the valve cover. The cover seal must be reseated correctly, and it's not impossible for a spark plug tube oring to fall off the valve cover. They usally are stuck, but if you bump them on valves or spark plug tubes they can drop off. Note, I'm pretty sure the EX engine does not have the lower orings beneath the valve train rocker assys.

good luck

 

You've recently had the valve cover gasket replaced - along with the upper tube seals?Those upper tube seals aren't "O-rings"; they are just like the gasket around the perimeter of the VC. If they're sorta new, they may still work OK.

If they're a couple years old, then they're probably hardened so they won't re-seal very good.

 

Yes I had the valve cover gasket and the upper tube seals replaced about three months ago.

Does anyone know for sure whether or not my car has the lower seals to worry about?

 

I'm pretty sure it DOES have the lower seals (those are O-rings), unless you've been swapping engines.