Oil in spark plugs

[chrism1]

What would be the cause of oil getting into the spark plugs on a 1600 zetec?

The car was running fine, then overheated and came to a slow rattely stop.
There's water in the tank but it appears not to be dropping, bottom hoses are hot but there's no warm air from the heaters(when running)

The car now just spins over due to the amount of oil in the plugs..

Anyone have any ideas?
Cheers peeps

[ChasR]

Cam cover gasket and or seals on top of them. If it were me (depending on what seals and gaskets it has) I would get a genuine Ford gasket and see what the tightening sequence is for the cam cover (many 16v engines have this now .

[bortaf]

My guess would be the water pump has lost it impellers (hense the over heating with no loss of water and no heat from the heater), if the engine gets hot enough the rubber cam cover gasket will melt and stop sealing, oil around the outside of the plugs wont usually stop it starting, seen many with inches of oil in there yet they ran fine, water in there will make it misfire like hell but usually still start.
There's a possability the CPS has been damaged by the overheating or a terminal problem with the engine, coming to a rattly stop is never good no matter the engine but the zetec isn't exactly "hardy" in the way say a pinto was.
Can you get it fault code read ?

[chrism1]

From speaking to the owner, the cambelt was done around 3k ago, but as far a she knows they never done the pump, to my knowledge even the slightest wiggle on the belt can hurt the water pump. The engine spins over but it sounds like a blender (meeting no resistance), goona do a compression test and see what readings come back, I know its around 170 for a healthy engine plus or minus 10%. If there's little reading I'm guessing its a total headgasket fail and a damaged head. The oily plugs is now known to be a leaky rocker gasket a common zetec issue.

[rodney]

head gasket has curse word itself if it aint starting after over heating blowing between cylinders if its no compression, not a hard job to do,.

[ChasR]

It sounds like the cambelt was 'almost' done properly. For best results it is good practice to remove the cam cover so as to lock off the camshafts. It is probably also wise to change the gasket at the same time. I would also check the cam timing since it was only done 3k ago, just in case certain things were skimped (the Zetec engines have no keys on the pulleys so if the crank pulley bolt was not replaced and/or not tightened sufficiently there is a chance that the timing may have slipped. Getting the fault code read could point you in the right direction.

The water pump does not matter on a Zetec ; on all of them the water pump was driven via the auxiliary belt.

[chrism1]

Apparently the wbelt was changed at its last mot (done by kwikfit) so I'll speak to them and see if the problem was apparent when moting it. The compression gauge barley moves of the 0 so i've either a faulty gauge or a total gasket fail.

[bortaf]

Zero on all cylinders? TBH i wouldn't of thought a gasket failing would have given nothing at all on the comp test, are you sure the belt hasn't slipped and bent the valves ? check the crank pully and see if the bolt is tight.

[chrism1]

the belt and pulleys all seem tight as drum, there's a little bit of movement in the belt (around 3mill) from left to right. I've a feeling my gauge is faulty as it offered little or no reading so will sort out a second 1 and go again.. How involved is a zetec headgasket? More of a plugs and points man than this modern stuff lol

[rodney]

have you actually checked the cam belt under its cover?,.

[ChasR]

Oct 29, 2014 16:09:36 GMT chrism1 said:

Apparently the wbelt was changed at its last mot (done by kwikfit) so I'll speak to them and see if the problem was apparent when moting it. The compression gauge barley moves of the 0 so i've either a faulty gauge or a total gasket fail.

The pulleys could have slipped after it left their workshop so I would hold out much hope there in all honesty.

[chrism1]

update time. The cambelt and timing are all good, turned the engine over by hand and all seemed to match. after a comp test the readings were. 175, 170,178 and 140, so its lost compression. when turning over with the plugs in its forcing steam or emissions out the expansion tank. The spark plugs were soaked in oil their entire length of the electroed (pulled them out and they were dripping), All of that smacks to me of headgasket failure and a pain in the posteria