Re: another question about 74 spider

["Gregory S. Youngblood" <greg@domain.elided>]

On Sat, 5 Jan 2002, Scott Fisher wrote:

> --- "Gregory S. Youngblood" <greg@domain.elided> wrote:
> >
> > The engine looked clean, however, there appeared to
> > be some oil down in
> > the well where the first plug was. Using paper towel
> > I collected some of
> > it and it looked like fairly clean oil. The seller
> > indicated that he must
> > have spilled some oil when he poured it in. Given
> > the location of the oil
> > cap and the plug this certainly seems plausible.
> > Does it seem plausible to
> > the rest of you?
>
> Let him whose #1 plug well is without oil cast the
> first plug, or something.  Yes, I believe I have made
> this exact mistake.  It's completely plausible, and
> there is a bit of a trick involved in really cleaning
> the plug wells - read on.
>
> If you really want to be picky, pull the dipstick and
> wipe the oil from it on a white paper towel, then wipe
> the oil from around plug #1 on another white paper
> towel.  The dipstick oil will give you an idea of what
> the oil is like inside the engine and let you compare
> the two for color, consistency, etc.  Even with a
> relatively recent oil change, the oil inside the
> engine should be visibly darker than the oil outside.

Thanks for the tip. While my father has my Milano I have his Hyundai
Elantra. A while back it started running REALLY bad, so much so I had to
park it until I could dig into it. Turns out the wells on that Hyundai 1.8
are about 4 to 6 inches deep, and the wires have a rubber cap that is
supposed to seal the well.

Evidently the seal on two of the plugs wasn't that tight. I found one well
3/4 full of water and the other entirely full of water.

I ended up using a lot of paper towel and a screwdriver to soak up all the
water so I could replace the plugs. I replaced the wires too.

I wonder how hard it would be to fashion some kind of shield or seal for
the alfa?

I'll be going over the car pretty thoroughly when I go to pick it up. I'll
be checking the oil then as well to see how much it (may have)
deteriorated between the first inspection and when I pick it up.

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