1997 Accord valve train picture

[garlicbreadman]

Owner asked me to do an ignition tuneup on this car and then i discovered spark plugs soaked in engine oil so i changed the valve cover gasket set. Don't know the work history but i put in M1 5w-30 today.
Heavy varnish but nothing like sludge or gunk. Seems typical to have varnish on Honda SOHC engines. Engine runs well and burns no oil.



Does anyone know if these have another set of spark plug gaskets underneath the valve train? I know that the 90-93 does. Im hoping that the problem was the upper spark plug gaskets....

 

[vssjim]

yes there are o rings under there but I don't see them leak very often

 

[Klutch9]

OP, how many miles on the motor?

 

[gregk24]

Lots of varnish...good idea putting in the Mobil 1, hopefully it will clean things up a bit.

 

[OVERKILL]

Wow, that's ugly!

 

[garlicbreadman]

120k city miles.
Owner gave me the m1 that he bought from costco.

 

[Zaedock]

Looks pretty typical to me.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Wow, that's ugly!

It is.

 

[Zaedock]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Wow, that's ugly!

It is.



By our standards. None of my vehicles (except maybe my Bronco, which I haven't pulled apart yet) look like that. Most anyone's vehicle I have ever worked on with any kind of mileage looks similar though. People typically drive the doo dee out of their vehicles and don't think twice.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Yes, there are more seals under the valvetrain. Ericthecarguy has a video that shows exactly how to change them.

 

[fdcg27]

How many miles on this engine?
Our '97 did not look that bad at around 180K, when I had the valve cover off to replace the very same gaskets.
It's still perking along happily with its new owner, who bought it from us at 207K.
I can tell you that it isn't usually the easily replaced top gaskets that leak oil into the spark plug tubes.
It's usually the harder to replace lower o-rings, which you probably got with the new gasket set.
Wet spark plug tubes are a known problem with this engine, and AFAIK, the 90-93 and 94-97 Accords share a common engine.
Honda apparently figured this out, since our '99 Accord had bone-dry spark plug tubes throughout its life.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Zaedock
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Wow, that's ugly!

It is.



By our standards. None of my vehicles (except maybe my Bronco, which I haven't pulled apart yet) look like that. Most anyone's vehicle I have ever worked on with any kind of mileage looks similar though. People typically drive the doo dee out of their vehicles and don't think twice.


Absolutely.

 

[Silverado12]

I actually thought the engine looked pretty good. No black sludge at all like I used to see from engines in the 70's when I replaced valve cover gaskets.

 

[650NutKase]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Yes, there are more seals under the valvetrain. Ericthecarguy has a video that shows exactly how to change them.



Awwww you beat me to it! haha. Yep change these gaskets too. Might as well while youre in there.

 

[garlicbreadman]

i just replaced the gasket that mates the valve train to the valve cover. I'll inspect it next time and go from there. After a mile drive, the spark plug boots were drive so hopefully the problem was fixed.

The spark plug wells were filled with oil, so much that there was oil splash when i inserted my spark plug socket in there.

 

[jrustles]

nice "Castrol tan"

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: jrustles
nice "Castrol tan"

When I said something similar about the varnish that is common on BMW's I had folks with pitchforks out to get me! LOL!

 

[kschachn]

Yes, replace those. I had oil in the spark plug wells, and when I changed out the o-rings the old ones were like hard plastic. New o-rings, no more oil in wells

I too had hoped it was the easy to replace upper seals but it was not.

Originally Posted By: 2012AccentSE
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Yes, there are more seals under the valvetrain. Ericthecarguy has a video that shows exactly how to change them.



Awwww you beat me to it! haha. Yep change these gaskets too. Might as well while youre in there.

 

[kschachn]

Varnish is common on BMWs? Good thing I don't use Castrol

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: jrustles
nice "Castrol tan"

When I said something similar about the varnish that is common on BMW's I had folks with pitchforks out to get me! LOL!

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
Varnish is common on BMWs? Good thing I don't use Castrol

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: jrustles
nice "Castrol tan"

When I said something similar about the varnish that is common on BMW's I had folks with pitchforks out to get me! LOL!


Seems to be.

Whenever I see engine pics on M5board or maxbimmmer they always seem to have varnish

And if my wife's 328i and my sister's 330i (the latter being dealer maintained per the OLM) are any indication, it is as common as I think it is, LOL!