What could be my problem? My 2003 Accent spark plugs overheat and get burned, loaded with carbon. The car then stops. Smoke comes out through the spark plug area, it overheats, but the radiator doesn't overheat. Does this sound as a major engine overhaul?

 

A compression check and a leak down test can tell you the condition your engine is in

Thought ... carbon? Could the piston rings be worn and not sealing against the oil?
Is there too much oil in the crankcase?
Could the valves not be seated and the oil is getting in?
Will a hotter spark plug help?

 

Thanks for your reply. Yesterday I installed 4 new spark plugs and took the car for a ride. After 5 miles of perfect performance it happened like the day before. The engine shut down and fumes and the smell of burning oil started coming out of the spark plug area. Tomorrow morning I will take the car to a repair shop. I was wondering if this problem sounds like something that will cost a lot of money to fix or could this be easily repaired by a typical repair shop (the area around the spark plugs looks pretty oily). Thanks for your help!

 

I believe you have a leaking valve cover gasket and that will be relatively inexpensive. I think this is the case because you talk about smoke coming up from the "spark plug area....and it is pretty oily". Engine oil is a conductor for electricity and it causes misfires to the point where the engine stops.

 

The appearance of the plugs could be due to the misfiring.
I believe allegretto is on to something , because if the oil was getting on to the plugs due to rings , you would not be getting the smoke from the engine compartment ,it most likely would be coming out of the tailpipe.
If the engine is run long enough misfiring, that opens the door for an exhaust converter problem after the misfiring is corrected. Then the catalytic converter will need to be replaced.

 

Thanks a lot Avisitor, Allegretto and Hanky. I feel a lot better now because I'm getting the idea that I won't need to rebuild the engine or something very expensive like that. Have a wonderful day and a great 2020!

 

Thank You and the same to you !

It is always nice when you get the problem corrected to let us know how you made out and what was found, thanks.

 

Yeah, think allegretto may be right.
Leaky oil cover gasket around the spark plugs.
Let's hope it is that simple and an easy fix.

Please up date us on how it goes

 

help runing out of things to check

 

So we are all on the same page,
Usually , when attempting to start the engine , we say it cranks over, means the starter is turning the engine over.
Once the engine starts up , we say it fires up.,is running .

What we look for when we have a no start,,,, do we have spark , fuel and air ? The engine can't run if either of these is absent.
If it won't start after we have those three and it still won't fire up , then we get into more complicated tests that require equipment most folks don't have.
So,,,,,,,,,,,,,,where are we here?