Oil pool at spark plugs

I just bought a 97 contour gl. I started doing my usual intial changing of the fluids, filters, plugs, etc.. I did notice when i looked at buying it that there was a little oil residue around the valve cover. No biggie I thought. Probably just a gasket. Anyways, upon taking of the first plug wire a significant amount of oil was pouring off it. Looked inside where the plugs are and they were about 1/2 submersed in oil. All four plugs were like this. So I took out all the plugs and naturally the oil drained into the cylinder, but was trying to figure out how it got like this. Any ideas? Valve cover gasket??? Or something else.


Also, it smells like gas might be getting into the oil. This is confirmed not only by the strong smell of gas where you put the oil in, but also it seems to be sucking down the gas a pretty brisk pace. I've looked elsewhere for possible leaks of gas. I also have never smelt gas as if it were leaking from a line or what have you. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

The oil around the plugs is a valve cover gasket and can easily be repaired by replacing the gasket and torguing the bolts to the correct # and proper sequence. Get a good gasket set like maybe a Felpro, I'd also use a bit of RTV sealant.

The fuel in the crankcase would lead me to rings. Do a compression test to get a feel for where you're losing the fuel.

O rings?