Oil on piston #2

[lccynmbr13]

I'm considering buying a 1st gen from my buddy for a daily driver. I went over to his house to run a compression test and got (from the timing belt over) 148-149-147-148 and was pleased with the results, but when I was putting the spark plugs back in noticed that the top of piston 2 was wet and the plug was oily. The motor doesn't smoke though. I'm pretty confident its a bad valve seal not the engine what do you guys think?

PS Did not do leakdown didn't have the proper equipment at his place and couldn't drive it to my house it doesn't have tabs.

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

If it isn't smoking then you can probably suspect the valve seals are going. Although I would want to do a leak down test just to be sure. Pull the oil cap while it's running and see if you can feel air escaping out the top.

 

[hhuricane]

He may also have put oil in the cylinder to raise the compression if it has bad rings. I'd be cautious about this one.

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

Very good point.

 

[lccynmbr13]

He may also have put oil in the cylinder to raise the compression if it has bad rings. I'd be cautious about this one.

He's a rookie he had no idea what the process even consisted of to do a compression test let alone know that oil will raise compression results. Just wanted to make sure you guys agree that the valve seal is most likely the culprit.