Oil above spark plugs
 

As I was changing the spark plugs today, I took out the first coil and plug and they were covered with oil. There was small amounts of oil sitting in the low spots of the area above all the spark plugs. I am at a loss for what this could be.

I changed 1 plug and attempted to wipe out all the oil in the area and then started the car. Of course there was some white smoke that burned off the oil at the start but it went away. No smoke on exhaust.

I left all the covers off so I could look and one of the plugs seems to be accumulate small bubbles while running. Since I don't see white smoke, could a gasket be leaking this up to the spark plug?

I took the cover off the other side and there is some oil build up in there as well.

Any ideas what is causing this? Should I just replace all covers and sell vehicle? :)


BMW x5 2001 4.4

Valve cover gaskets, more specifically the rings around the spark plug tubes. Just replace the gaskets.

No biggie, just valve cover gaskets and the round rubber grommets, just replaced mine, the grommets were so hard they felt like metal washers...lol You can do it yourself if your mechanically inclined, the passenger side is easy, the drivers side is a bitch...lol!

My friend suggested it was the Crush washers with the spark plugs.

One of the cylinders had a small foam coming out around the rubber connector from the coil. I replaced that one and it has stopped. We believe the previouis mechanic to change the plugs did a shite job. They even forgot to connect the ground connectors back to the coils.

I changed 6 of 8 plugs so far. I need to go grab a flop wrench set for those back two.

oil did drain through the spark plug holes into the cylinders. It all burned off after a few minutes. It looked as though I had elected a new pope for a few minutes.

the spark plug tubes are 30$ a pop at the dealer x8
and about ~75-90 $ for both valve cover gaskets

i did it 2 months ago, took long time, had allot of difficulty with drivers side