not car savvy...

[ghanman]

Well, the other day I was looking under the hood of my 97 SL2 (about 96k), to try and discover why/where my anti-freeze was leaking from. While I was investigating, I noticed that one of my sparkplug wires was loose. I pulled the plug out of the well, mainly because it was loose, and was rather suprised to see the sparkplug wire and well covered in oil. I know this is not good. I know oil shouldn't be in a place where a spark is supposed be, but I hadn't a clue as to how it leaked into there. Thinking the worst, I called up a friend who is car savvy. Well, I should say he's a "subaru savvy" type of guy. Anyway, He checked it out and said it was probably my head gasket/valve cover gasket gone bad. He came to this conclusion by his great car knowledge, and by the fact that oil was around the gaskets. I actually didn't know what the gaskets looked like until tonight. Thanks to you wonderful people on this forum. I really haven't had decrease in performance, from what I can tell. The car still runs but I'm kind of concerned about this. Has anything like this happened to any of you out there? Any suggestions, or comments on my friends diagnosis?

[miamisl2]

happens to a lot of saturns

is the head gasket leaking or have oil all over it or the valve cover gasket? shouldnt be that hard to tell.

chances are your valve cover is leaking around the plug wells, its easy to replace, i have the older model where black rtv sealant is reccomended but yours i believe uses a gasket, though many have used black rtv on those models as well, i believe. replace the valve cover gasket and if you're still leaking oil then replace the head gasket.

theres other ways to diagnose this but its late and i dont wanna get into it.

[ghanman]

I had another guy take a look at it, and we found that the valve cover was leaking around the plugwells. We're gonna get that replaced in the next few days. Thanks for the advice.