The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support ExtremePSI
Please Support Rix Racing

Dropped oil in sparkplug well

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ces4rDSM

Proven Member
119
6
Feb 2, 2019
watsonville, California
I had the valv cover off while I lubricated the parts as well as adding oil since I had flushed the engine, I poured some oil into the sparkplug hole with sparkplugs intacked, cleabed as best as i could but some stayed so i removed spark plug letting oil in chamber, whats to expect ?
 
How much oil?
What you need to be worried about is if there was more oil than the chamber volume at TDC.

The safest thing would be to leave the plug out and crank the engine over a few times to blow the oil out then clean up. Get a new spark plug to make sure it isn't oil fouled inside or outside and make sure the wire is also clean.
 
Throw an old towel over the open sparkplug hole and do like Steve suggests.
 
The very least you should expect after cleaning is some smoke out of the exhaust. You wont be able to clean it all and some residue will be left. I would use a burner spark plug and after it stops smoking change it out to a good spark plug.

My dad would do this very thing when he would submerge his dirt bike in water or mud, stand it up, take the spark plug out crank it over to pump the fluids out, reinstall a new spark plug and continue riding.
 
It filled the well up to about half the spark plug, the wire wasnt intact. The spark plug was screwed in, I used towels to remove as much oil before unscrewing it.

So yall are suggesting to crank the engine without the spark plug and wire? The liquids will eventually spread out on the piston walls, but idk about the oil coming out through the spark plug hole.

Steve at tdc, the middle pistons are down and the outskirt pistons are up right ? If so the cavity in which the oil fell in should be less than the space at tdc.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So yall are suggesting to crank the engine without the spark plug and wire? The liquids will eventually spread out on the piston walls, but idk about the oil coming out through the spark plug hole.

The point is to blow the oil out the of cylinder from the spark plug hole rather than try to compress in in the cylinder and potentially bend a connecting rod or break a piston. Yes it will be a little messy but it's better than a broken engine if there is too much oil in the cylinder. Even after spinning the engine over there will be oil coating the surfaces but that will burn off one you start it.

I didn't suggest putting a towel over the rocker cover because I seen people suck them in on the downward stroke but I usually cover with a thick shop rag if I have to do this myself. I've missed the fill hole once or twice over the years and I remember the spark plug wells filling up with oil when the rocker cover gaskets had failed. That was always messy.
 
Its not that it will spread out on the piston walls, the rings would keep it in the cylinder if its on top, its to get as much oil out of the cylinder without damaging important components. Liquid is more dense than air so if you dont have the spark plug out it will attempt to compress the oil which is really dense it could damage what Steve listed. The engine is designed to compress air and gas. You are basically pumping the oil out using the cylinder compression and the small spark plug hole to shoot the oil out. You could also use a hand pump like one you would use to bleed the brake system. Stick the hose down in the hole with that piston at the top of the cylinder and manually pump it out. You can even move the hose around in the compression chamber to try to get as much out as you can or suck some out, let it sit, suck more out and let it sit and do it over and over until you get mostly air.

Those pumps usually come with a clear hose to see if you are picking up anything. It would be good to cut the hose at a slight angle so that the hose doesnt attach itself to the piston and not pick anything up, The angle cant be too steep but you also dont want it to be too shallow. The other way would probably be faster but if you arent confident in doing that then the pump is a good option.
 
The thing is, I just did a hg replacement, havent started engine in 4months.

Would be my first start, I dont know if everything is right. My tensioner isnt giving out tension correctly either. Im scared whether first start will be a mess but i really need the car rn
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The hydraulic tensioner, after I removed pin since I removed the timing belt, the push rod in it would not go out but stayed in the position as if it still had the pin. I put everything together already
 
From what I have read from other posts, the hydraulic tensioner doesnt move much, and it doesnt move when you pull the pin and you should turn the engine over by hand 5 or 6 times to get everything situated which will make the hydraulic tensioner move. If you had all the timing marks right and nothing was off when you installed the timing belt then you should be good.

If you put the timing belt on with all the marks in the right place, and nothing shifted after you put the timing belt on like what was happening to me because I had the cam gear lock tool in upside down then you should be good in that area.
 
Yes it can and many people do put them in upside down since they dont put any markings, at least mine, which is labeled as top. There was an arrow on it but with no instructions that comes with them to know which way the arrow should be, is that the top of the tool or the bottom? It doesnt say. The STM cam lock tool looks like its a much higher quality and I would guess easier to use since I would guess you wouldnt want the STM logo to be upside down when using it.

If they would of drawn and arrow and had a simple T on it to represent the top of the tool then no one would have that problem most likely, but it is entirely possible.

I think you are supposed to rotate it 6 times though and that gets everything situated and settled in with each other. When I rebuilt my engine I had to redo the timing belt a lot because of the above issue and each time if I remember correctly I inserted the other tool that compresses the hydraulic tensioner so you can put the pin back in and it only compressed it once and that was after I turned the engine over by hand doing a whole cycle back to TDC. The rest if I remember correctly the pin just slid back in even though I used the hydraulic tensioner compression tool it didnt do anything since we never spun the engine over since we were getting the same issue caused by the tool.

I also did it all outside of the car so it wasnt a completely pain to do. But always check the timing marks out before and after the timing belt is on, and one more time before you put the timing cover on.
 
I would take pictures as well. Ive learned from being on here, pictures pictures pictures. Even if you dont use the pictures for asking a question they can be used for comparison for someone elses problem.
 
Its just easier for people to diagnose stuff. Is all, so many people will ask for a video of something you hear, want you to move the camera around, take pictures of something.

Some things it doesnt work with like wiring issues or idle surge and it just has to be worked through. Even if you just want reassurance you are doing things right throwing up a few pictures can be helpful. Paragraphs of texts can be confusing, especially for someone like me that has dyslexia and things just get jumbled and its not fun.
 
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top