1G Oil in only 1 exhaust runner?

[Kdouglas89]

Looking for any kind of feedback here. Working on a new car. Was smoking pretty good before I took the chinese turbo off. Valve cover was for sure leaking / has cracks, so I'm assuming the spark plug gasket could also be bad. When I noticed the smoking, I immediately thought of turbo, so I purchased an oem 16g. When I took exhaust manifold off, I noticed the 4th runner was black with oil, while the rest just had carbon build up. I could not see any oil ontop of the valves while looking through the runners.

I'm really hoping valve seals aren't leaking, and just hoping it was the turbo, but oil buildup in only 1 runner makes me suspicious.

 

[curt-s]

sounds like, especially if you have no oil on #1 spark plug.
oil from the turbo seal wouldnt show up in an exhaust runner

 

[BLACK'98DSM]

If the engine can be easily put back to running condition: degrease it, run it, and look again. Then you should know your answer for sure. If not, be on the safe side and go ahead to replace it.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Guides or oil rings. Anytime I buy a boneyard motor, I ask them to pull the exhaust manifold(s) and the plugs. If any have oily residue, I go to the next motor. I would expect more than 1 cylinder to have bad valve guides if they are going bad. Don't want to give bad news, just putting facts out there to ponder on and hoping for the best of any bad news.

 

[Bud92gsx]

I'm gonna agree with the above guy. You could do spark plug gaskets and valve cover gasket, see if that was the problem. You know oil leaking from another simple fix location.
I'd hate to just tell you, what I assume. So try the simple fix first, fingers crossed for ya.