Ok, I know that having oil in the tubes is not good for the engine/plugs, but just how bad is it? In October I am going to have the T-Belt done, and was thinking I could wait and have them do the plug seals then. I figure why change the valve cover gasket if they are just going to replace it then. Is there any real harm waiting until then, or can that really screw something up? What say you?

 

Which car is this on, the 91 or the 02?

 

Jeez, might help if I specify that. It's on the '91. It does not have OEM wires on it, so I am assuming the previous owner did a tune up on it sometime prior. 134k on the clock.

 

i got my 97 accord and i got oil in my plugs and i am trying to figure out weather it is going to be worth changing the valve cover gasket or if it is something else. any ideas?

 

If the oil gets high enough, it could short the plug, and make the engine run terrible. I don't advise taking the plug out, and letting the oil go into the cylinder too many times, but you want to keep the oil level down below the ceramic part of the plug. The engine will burn the small amount of oil pretty quickly. It can also ruin the plug wires, if it gets that high. The best thing to do, would be to suck the oil out with a small hose, without removing the plug, but not everyone has tools for that. I don't think it will damage anything to wait until the timing belt job is done.

 

Both of your cars have upper and lower spark plug tube seals. The upper are simple to change out. The lower seals are a bit more work. You can change the valve cover gasket and the upper seals and see if that takes care of the oil leak. When the timing belt gets redone, the new valve cover gasket can be reused. Pay attention to which face of the upper seal goes into the valve cover. On my old 95 EX, I would have installed them backwards by looking at the seal. I think the LX/DX/SE go in the way you would think.

If you want to do the lower seals, search wYU8qtPzQOY on YouTube for a video on how to do the lower seals.

 

Yeah, I have seen that vid, but I'm not too sure I want to tackle the lower seals.

 

I have a 2002 Honda accord and I have small amount of oil in the tube. I was told I need a new valve cover gasket and gormmets. Does anyone know how to change those. It's an ex model.

 

Easy...

- Remove the spark plug wires - leave them in the distributor, or else mark them well so you get them back in the right places.
- Unbolt the valve cover from the top of the engine.
- R&R the rubber gasket on the underside of the valve cover, making sure you notice the right-side-up orientation of the round tube seals.
- Apply a tiny bit of sealant only where the gasket makes a sharp corner to go over the camshaft. That's 4 places, 2 on each end. Permatex Ultra Grey = HondaBond.
- Bolt the valve cover back into place. Don't over-tighten the bolts, people have broken them off.
- Put the sparkplug wires back.

(2002 does not have lower tube seals)

 

93' 2.2L had the back two valve cover nuts not even hand tight. 3 spark plug tubes filled up with oil. 2 center wires had rubber expand many, many times their original size and forced them out of the tubes. Took out the plugs and #3 had definitely not been firing for a long time. (Son that refused to learn about cars has been driving it all winter and spring) So I figure with those two wires popped out and #1 also full of oil he was running on two and sometimes one cylinder. Good job for that car. I took off valve cover, cleaned out tubes, replaced plugs and wires and got a gasket set that I put sealant in the four angled corners of the large gasket. Anyway, what I was wondering is, what is recommended for the valve cover nuts to keep them from coming loose? They are as tight as I feel I can go without causing damage. Should I just check them every 3 months? Should I use some type of locktite?