Valve cover gasket change, flooded spark plug valley clean up question

[Wwall]

Hey guys,

I'm changing out my leaking valve cover gaskets for new ones on my 7mgte. I've removed the ISC piping, 3000 pipe, PCV piping and coil packs. When I pulled the plug end of the spark plug wires off of the plugs, I saw that the spark plug valley was flooded with black oil - I'm sure this was just from the leaky valve gaskets and no coolant was in there.

My next step will be to remove the 4 12mm bolts holding down the valley cover and soak out the oil. This is my first time doing this so I had a few questions that were'nt covered in the guide im following;

-Can the spark plugs/wires be cleaned and salvaged?
-Is it a big concern if oil leaked past the plug's threads and down in while I'm removing the old plugs?

Thanks!

 

[91Supra313]

Yeah they can be salvaged easily. clean the outside of the plug wires with degreaser, and the same for the plugs. for the inside of the plug wires, use degreaser and then use electronics cleaner inside of there. This will ensure that all the degreaser and oil is gone from inside there. At least that is what I did everytime I had to drain the old 7M

 

[SupraPieces]

Probably not your valve cover gaskets... There are 3 head access plugs that hold down the black plate that covers the galley... These are only there for access to the head for machine shop cleaning and for holding that plate in place. These are known to leak oil into the spark plug galley. Filled mine twice... once then I changed the valve cover gaskets... then again before realizing the real issue... You'll need a 19mm allen key I believe was the size I used... Pull them out, clean them, and carefully RTV the threads and re-install without leaking any into the head.. Problem solved!

 

[SupraPieces]

As far as oil leaking into the combustion chamber... I used a hose attached to a wet/dry vacuum... worked like a charm... after that, the little bit that leaks down will be burnt off on the next startup

 

[Wwall]

Thanks, the No. 3 cylinder cover was bad. I fit 20mm o-rings over the 4 14mm bolts and will pop them in tomorrow after a compression test + spark plug change. I bought NGK platinums for the time being, should I have them gapped - or is the factory gap fine?

I also picked up a bunch of hosing to replace all the vac lines and the pvc lines i cracked while removing the pipes. I also noticed that my no.6 coil pack terminal looked a little corroded. Can i clean this? or does this mean the coil is bad?

thanks again

 

[SupraPieces]

Not sure if a corroded terminal is a tell-tale sign of a bad coil... glad you were able to fix the issue..