okay so i have had this car for awhile about 2 thousand miles now. it has been kinda hard to start latley. the starter would kick it just hasnt been turning the motor over very well. it takes a bout 3secs. well i always figured that i just needed to do a tune up. well i decided that today i would change the spark plugs. when i pulled them there was oil down where the diodes are on the plugs. but it wasnt burnt oil it was fairley "wet" if you wanna call it. so my question is what do you guys think, my first thought was a valvestem seal but then thinking about it and talking to one of the mechanics at my work it sounds like the rough starting is b/c of loss of compression. thinking a broke piston ring. any input would be great.

 

could possibly be a head gasket if not the rings

 

Id start slow, replace the valve cover gaskets and take out\battery and get it checked. It may not have too much power left. I wouldnt think it would be the head gasket, just my opinion. When my head gasket blew, there were no warning signs but the oil light coming on and off for about a month.

 

do you run it hard at all? if so - did you get any white smoke - more noticably at higher rpms? if rings are letting oil up then it should puff at least a little - id think - at higher rpms. if spud says it might be a headgasket - id listen.

was there oil down in the spark plug tube and/or did the plug seem in there tight?

 

i dont know what you consider hard but i normally drive it around 70-75ish on highway. there was oil in spark plug tubes and no there is no white smoke at higher rpms, as a matter of fact i dont think there is any smoke at all. i will check more in depth. the tech's at my work seem to think that its the head gasket. there apparently is an oil jacket near the rear of the number 4 cylinder and they said that there is a chance that the head gasket is busted or the head might be warped. so i think ill start there and see how that goes.