Oil in spark plug wells

[DJ]

Hey, I left my MX-3 GS sit for about a month. When I went to take it out for a drive it idled fine for about 10 minutes then when I put in 1st and tried to take off it started running very very rough, and the check engine light came on. I had a friend take a look and there is oil in almost all of the 6 spark plug wells.
From searching the forum it looks like maybe the valve cover gasket? How much does that usually cost at a garage to replace? It would need to be towed as well. Or is it something worse?

Thanks!

[nightridergsr]

Yeah, sounds like valve cover gaskets. Not sure but a garage might charge 4 hours or more for labor. The front isn't hard at all to change, the rear is a little harder to get to some of the bolts, I'd have to go look but I think the intake manifold has to come off to change the rear valve cover gasket.

[umcamara]

I should add that anytime I wash my engine bay water seeps past the boots on the spark plug wires and into the wells. This shorts the spark to the block instead of going throught the plug electrodes, and causes the engine to barely run.

Yours may very well be oil. But you could easily blow it out with compressed air (and a cloth to prevent splatter). That way the engine should run fine and you can drive it to the mechanic to get the gaskets replaced.

[mitmaks]

just do it yourself, learn something new and save money

[Daninski]

You can try "snugging" the valve cover bolts down first but this is a fairly easy job to do your self. Use silcone where ever a transition happens as per the manual and use the proper torque.