Valve Cover Gasket?

[Sniper82]

Sister has a 92 Toyota Camry with 195k miles on it. Well maintenance ain't kept up like it should be IMO(plugs,wires,ect) just oil changes here and there. Today I check her oil and its low. I check her spark plugs and this is what I get out of each of the plug holes.

http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/8794/1002hj9.jpg

After seeing this I didn't even bother pulling the plugs out. The oil that in the holes is old because its almost sludge. The oil in the oil pan is definitely fresher/thinner. How hard would this be to fix? How should I go about removing the oil? The car actually still runs fine though but I told her she didn't need to be driving it till it was fixed.

 

[Shawn]

They are usually easy to replace but hard to keep from leaking.

 

[thecritic]

I probably ran my Saturn that way for a long time as I did not notice the problem.

Get a gasket kit from the dealership. Make sure it includes the spark plug tube seals. Clean all mating surfaces and make sure they are dry before installing.

As for the old oil, remove as much as you can using a turkey baster. Then, remove the plugs and let the rest drip down. All of it will burn off within a few miles of driving. Now is a good time to replace the plugs and wires.

 

[njmodi]

Yep - this is not the valve cover gasket, but the spark plug tube seals... in some designs these are seated into the valve cover from the underside (i.e. you have to pull the valve cover and you may as well replace the main valve cover gasket at that point anyway)... in other designs, the tube seals are built into the valve cover and the entire cover must be replaced.

This should be an easy fix.. (and cheap).

 

[Vette73]

For the Toyota 2.2 motor its pretty easy. Just get a Fel-Pro gasket from Advance, autozone, etc... and make sure you torque it to spec. To little and it still leaks, too much and you crack the cover.

But if oyu can change the oil and plugs on it then you can probable do the valve cover gasket.

 

[DOTC]

This may sound stupid, but what would be big deal be using some carb cleaner to flush it out of there? Might run a little rough on first start.. should clear up pretty fast. I'm sure enough of it will dump in there when the plugs are removed anyway.