car died on me today...

ASSISTANCE Stock Engine-Bay Components
1

hey guys

need your help here. I didn’t bother to search yet, because I just got off the tow truck, and I"m going to start the autopsy…

here’s what happened:

was cruising along when the car all of a sudden jerked forward and lost all power. Tried to start the car, but all I got was the engine cranking. Let the car sit for a few minutes, and tried cranking again but she wouldn’t start.

So, I called my friend and I decided to check for spark. Pulled off the spark plug wire and saw that the spark plug well was completely full of oil (you could barely see the spark plug). Horrified, I pulled out all the other plug wires, and found the same thing. All of the spark plug wells were filled with oil.

I’m going to pull off the valve cover in a few minutes, but I figured I’d start my post now…

I bought the car in november, and the previous owner had changed the distributor and the main fuel relay last year. I also did the timing belt a few months ago and I remember changing the rubber gasket for the spark plug holes.

The tow truck driver told me that even if there was oil in the spark plug wells, that the car shouldn’t have just died on me… could my problem be more than just the oil in the spark plug wells?

thanks guys!

car is a 91 GS hatchback

2

just pulled off the valve cover and plugs. Cleaned up all the mating surfaces, and the spark plugs. All 4 plugs look very clean (apart from the oil that dripped down into the CC) after I brake cleaned them; they have a nice, light tan color. I sprayed as much brake clean into the plug wires until clear brake clean came dripping out.

Cranked the engine without the plug wires on to purge as much oil as I could that went into the CC. Plugged everything back up, and the car still won’t fire. Had my neighbor cranked the car while I checked for spark, and I didn’t see any sparks.

I’m thinking that the distributor is my newfound problem. It was replaced last year by a non-OEM distributor… I’m guessing that these el’ cheapo parts don’t really last too long…

3

Is it fixed?

Hi,
mine did the same thing yesterday w/o the oil incident. Did you ever find out the problem?