Q: Excessive oil consumption, oil in spark plug holes, normal compression

asked by on September 12, 2016

I've had the excessive oil consumption now for 10 years. Car will smoke sometimes, usually when shifting, not sure what color, I can't see it when driving only someone following me can. When ive seen it, itdoesnt look blue. I've fixed the valve stem seals before, that was a more consistent smoke and didn't change the oil consumption problem. Recently the spark plug cylinders are really oil saturated. Did a compression check, all normal. Tried a wet compression and it kept blowing the tester hoses (Pretty old hoses). I'd like to figure out whether I'm gonna need just a new head or the block. Valves or pistons? Also 2 months ago a bad coil pack triggered a cylinder 2 misfire. Now same cylinder misfire, coil again, only two months old. The old coil was corroded at the 2 port and was really old. Newer coil appears fine and arcs when plug wire disconnected. Not sure if maybe the oil on the plugs is causing the coil to malfunction? Thanks, jennifer

My car has 162000 miles.
My car has a manual transmission.

The oil getting into the spark plug holes is from the valve cover and spark plug tube seals. Replace both of these and clean out spark plug holes of oil. This will help with the misfires and coils shorting out. The oil consumption of the engine is most likely due to the pistons and piston rings. Your engine would need to be rebuilt and the cylinders would need a good cross hatch in them to help reduce oil usage. All engines use some oil but excessive oil of more than a quart every 1000 miles is an internal engine piston problem. If you would like to have this checked, a certified professional from YourMechanic can come to the site of your car to diagnose the cause of the coil malfunction and inspect the oil-in-spark plug problem.

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