Help! Oil on spark plugs

I was doing an oil change and spark plug service on my 08 V6 today. I noticed there was oil on the threads and top insulators of my plugs. There was also a little bit of oil at the bottom of each cylinder. Am I looking at bad valve cover gaskets or something else? I have 117k miles on the truck. Sorry for the bad pictures.

Thanks in advance for the help

 

Not having had one of these apart, I'm guessing..........

But on a Miata, that would be a valve cover gasket, since the plug mounts through the cover, and the gasket goes around the plug holes.

Same here?

Good news is the tips aren't fouled. Bad news is the boots have likely been compromised, meaning they will need replacing before too long.

If my guess is correct, I'd be doing new wires as part of the gasket work.

 

With the years age that your gaskets have, they are probably hard and brittle. I only see oil on the top, so yeah, swap in some new ones.

80 in-lbs for the valve cover bolts.

 

def valve cover gaskets

 

Thanks for the replies. Is there a good link for a walk through/instructions for changing the gasket? Looks like I will have to remove quite a few things to get to the valve covers.

 

You need a set of these:

http://www.autozone.com/external-en...eyWord=valve+cover+gaskets&fromString=search#

 

Sub'd

Let us know how everything turns out, keep us posted.

 

Was there oil in the hole before you pulled plug? I don't see the plugs totally soaked like usaull with bad gaskets. The brown on the insulator is just compression blow by, worn plugs.

 

Yes. There were small amounts of oil in most of the cylinders.

 

Me too, let's see a 4l taco with its top end off, pics!