General Multiair - oil in plug holes

[Totalcommitment]

Hi, I've had 2 Punto Evos with the 1.4 16V multiair engine. The 2nd is a turbo.
Both cars had/have oil at the base of no1 and no4 spark plugs.
I don't think the oil is coming up from the plug thread, much more likely from the rocker cover gasket.
Seems very odd that both my cars have had this issue.
Anyone else noticed oil in their plug holes?

 

[mac magic]

Hi, my wife has a 3 year old 1.4 multiair evo. I was doing its 18000 mile service (only done 13500) last weekend and notice a significant amount of oil in plug no.2 but I don't know why?

I can't see any oil leaks etc around the engine, but I did notice a significant amount of emulsification in the oil filler cap, no sure if related. The car has not been using excessive oil or water.

It does run much better with its new plugs, but because I have just taken the originals out I don't how long the oil has been in there.

I plan to monitor both the filler cap and plugs once the mrs has done a few more miles.

 

[Totalcommitment]

Hi mac magic.
Let me know how you get on. I was hoping that the oil in my plug holes was just in there by accident (although not sure why) as the car had just been serviced before I got it (only 6K on the clock). Alas, after having thoroughly cleaned the holes, I re-inspected after less than 1000 miles and the oil is back in there, so its a real fault.
I guess I'll have to talk to my local dealer about it. I'm not sure where I stand regarding warranty, but it does seem like a design or manufacturing problem.
On my last Punto, the oil caused the car to occasionally run on 3 cylinders from cold when under load, presumably due to HV tracking.

 

[EvoStevo]

I had this when my cylinder head gasket had started going on previous cars, the oil spurts out and gets bounced back into the plug holes. Maybe that.

 

[T14086]

Rubber seals in rocker cover, easily & cheaply fixed

 

[Totalcommitment]

Hi T14086,
I wondered if you could explain a little further please.
As I understand it, the cylinder head is split into 2 parts, the lower carrying the valves and the upper carrying the camshaft. There is a flat plane gasket between them which goes around the plug holes. However, I'm assuming that this does not provide an oil seal as the top part carrying the camshaft will be lubricated and thus the plug hole must be sealed against this.
The e-per shows what i would call the rocker cover (under the section cylinder head and gasket covers) and also shows 'seal, gasket 55233644', (a round seal). However, whilst it shows the seal pointing towards the plug hole, it doesn't really show where it fits in the hole, and I'm wondering if this is the seal that fits around the top of the ignition coil/spark plug. If it is, then it's not what I'm looking for.
Apologies for being a bit verbose, but I've not come across this split cylinder head arrangement before and I don't want to order the wrong parts.
Cheers.

 

[scoop987]

The seals will be between the rocker cover (cam cover) and the cylinder head.

A cylinder head is typically 2 parts, the head casting and the cam cover, i know ford and other various manufacturers used a cam carrier between the head casting and the cam cover, but IIRC fiat doesn't.

 

[T14086]

I would advise getting a garage (preferable a Fiat dealer) to carry this out.