Hi, my brothers car, '94 accord non-vtec 4 cyl, died while he was driving, he was told it may possibly be the timing belt. The engine turns over and makes no unusual mechanical sounds. I pulled the cover off for one of the spark plugs and there is oil in there....is this normal? If not, can this help diagnose problem? I went to look at a used engine for this car and the engine I was looking at had oil in the same area?? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

 

Oil in the spark plug tubes is not normal and isn't too bad of a fix. There are oil seals in the valve cover that could be the cause. The rocker assembly has seals as well that are a bit more work to get to. Try to remove as much oil as possible from the spark plug tubes and see if this fixes the problem.

Here are some other items to test. Check for engine codes to see if a sensor is messed up. Download a 94 shop manual. Links for these items are in the common DIY thread on top of this forum.

You can do a quick check for a broken timing by removing the distributor cap, and turning the engine with a socket on the crank pulley. If the rotor in the distributor rotates, then the belt it intact. You can check for spark by using a timing light.