1988 F-150 302 V8. I recently replaced upper/lower intake gaskets and rocker arm cover gaskets myself. Getting pinging on excelleration and oil on plugs 1/2/4/7 (not sure if this was there before as I just bought the truck). Could a vacuum leak be causing the oil on the plugs? I had a massive leak at upper intake on first go round. Replaced gasket and no more audible noise, but I have not yet used a hose to listen for any. I recently replaced the pcv valve. Have some oil in the tube from the oil fill to the breather case, but the case and filter are dry. I'm also loosing oil. Right now it's about 1/2 qt after 500 miles. What do you think?

 

I think you should check your compression. Your rings may be bad. If any check low, shoot a couple of squirts of 30 wt oil in the sparkplug hole and check again. If the compression comes up a lot, you got bad rings.

 

Bubba- That wasn't exactly the news I was hoping for. I'll check the compression. By the way, the oil is in the threads, but is not near the tip. Is that better or doesn't really matter? I thought I saw a post elsewhere that oil on two adjacent plugs could mean a vacuum leak at the gasket cover. Finally, if bad rings does that mean complete rebuild or something short of that. Hopefully you can tell the answer I'm looking for!!

 

I don't have all answers, but several people on this forum do. I just thought a compression check would be a good thing to do on a truck you just bought that is using quite a bit of oil. I don't know if a vacuum leak could cause your symtoms or not. I hope that's all it is and welcome to FTE. I'm sure others will be adding their comments, just be patient.

 

Are the plugs oil foiled? If you look at the valve covers are the wet with oil where they meet the head?

 

pfogle-

the valve covers are not wet. 4 of the plugs were wet when last checked. I will double check the plugs. It's early in the morning, but I'm certain it was oil. It couldn't have been fuel, could it. I checked the timing last night and I was way off. It appears my harmonic balancer has slipped. Looks like I had it set somewhere ATC. Set it as best I can figure, and runs much better. No more pinging. Could that have caused any of the oil fouled plugs? Also, I believe this truck sat for many months before I bought it. Read somewhere here that the rings sometimes stick after that. If so, what do I do? Thanks for any insight.

 

Follow-up

Men- clearly I need to check my compression. Your advice has been very helpful and I feel I need to check that first before I throw more "what if's" at ya. Thanks.

dfawvor