Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Hello again!

I feel like i'm starting lots of threads asking for help at the moment I've had a weekend of finding new faults with this 216

Yesterday I decided to swap out my spark plugs as I have no idea when they were last done, all went fine aside from one plug being soaked in oil when it came out. I saw a little oil on the top of the plug and assumed it was from the rocker gasket above, but then found it swimming in oil when I pulled it out.



I've swapped the plug out and noticed after a couple of miles that I can see a very very small amount oil in the spark plug well again. The walls of the plug well seem dry and the rubber on the HT plug seems dry too, so that suggests to me that the oil is coming from below rather than above.

The car seems to start and idle perfectly, not noticed any blue smoke or misfires either. The only thing of note is that the oil level in the engine is a tiny bit above the maximum, but it was like this when I picked the car up and it doesn't appear have dropped much, if at all.

I did try opening the oil cap with the engine running and I can feel a reasonable bit of air moving out.

Any suggestions, probably a compression test would be the next logical step? I really do appreciate the help from everyone on here, hopefully once i've learnt a bit more I can return the favour

edit: Oh it's a Honda SOHC engine with 63k on it, head gasket was swapped a few years ago too. Can't see any oil in the coolant either.

It’s the seals in the cam cover. One over each spark plug hole.

RoverRevival wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:14 pm It’s the seals in the cam cover. One over each spark plug hole.

Cheers for the reply! I'll get a set ordered and have a go at swapping them out. My initial thought was that it might have been piston rings or valve seals

moosemansjukebox wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:14 pm Cheers for the reply! I'll get a set ordered and have a go at swapping them out. My initial thought was that it might have been piston rings or valve seals

Craig is spot on with the seals - 4 of them that sit in the cam cover and seal the aluminium flutes that rise up around the spark plugs to meet the seals. It's oil coming in from the top of those flutes, past the seals - not oil in the combustion chambers! The plugs make a good seal themselves, so the oil should never get into the combustion chambers either.

I'm not 100% sure you can get Rover seals any more. I think you can still get Honda seals (haven't checked for ages but they'll be nice and expensive if you can) or aftermarket (like BGA for example) seals.

If they still don't seal, a drop of engine-friendly RTV sealant will do the trick - a thin bead (thin mind!) in a circle around the top flat face of each spark plug flute, then refit the cam cover with the seals in place. It's no substitute for seals in good condition though, so try and find some first.

Here's the BGA kit. Nice and cheap:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rocker-Cover ... 3727088265

Includes a new rocker cover gasket and the cam cover bolt seals. BGA are good quality and you shouldn't have any problems with these. If you're still getting oil in the plugs, try the sealant trick.

Johnny 216GSi wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:15 pm

moosemansjukebox wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 3:14 pm Cheers for the reply! I'll get a set ordered and have a go at swapping them out. My initial thought was that it might have been piston rings or valve seals

Craig is spot on with the seals - 4 of them that sit in the cam cover and seal the aluminium flutes that rise up around the spark plugs to meet the seals. It's oil coming in from the top of those flutes, past the seals - not oil in the combustion chambers! The plugs make a good seal themselves, so the oil should never get into the combustion chambers either.

I'm not 100% sure you can get Rover seals any more. I think you can still get Honda seals (haven't checked for ages but they'll be nice and expensive if you can) or aftermarket (like BGA for example) seals.

If they still don't seal, a drop of engine-friendly RTV sealant will do the trick - a thin bead (thin mind!) in a circle around the top flat face of each spark plug flute, then refit the cam cover with the seals in place. It's no substitute for seals in good condition though, so try and find some first.

Here's the BGA kit. Nice and cheap:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rocker-Cover ... 3727088265

Includes a new rocker cover gasket and the cam cover bolt seals. BGA are good quality and you shouldn't have any problems with these. If you're still getting oil in the plugs, try the sealant trick.

Lovely stuff - will have a stab at it next weekend. Cheers!