Oil leak - Advice Required

[anderz123]

Hi All,

Firstly - My Vehicle is 2.5 V6 Petrol 1997.

Over the past few months I've noticed that the first time the Bongo is started it runs a little rough. This only happens for about a minute or so, it is then fine for the rest of the day.

It fells like one of the plugs is not firing correctly, so I thought as a start I would remove each lead to look for evidence of arcing, corrosion etc. What I found is that the plug back, and hence the end of the HT lead on each side was covered in oil (remember i'm only talkling about "outside" the engine, I haven't removed the plug form the block).

I took it around to a friend who said it was more than likely the Rocker Gasket, but wasn't 100% convinced this was causing missfire type effect I was getting when the starting the engine from cold as oil is not conductive and the missfire wouldn't go away.

It all sound logical but can someone please confirm his prognosis as i'm about to buy a new gasket.

I've also been advised against removing the plug until the oil has been removed as it can cause damage to the cylinder?

Thanks in advace...

[Poohbear]

I've also been advised against removing the plug until the oil has been removed as it can cause damage to the cylinder?

Thanks in advace...

I hope not because I keep my engine filled up with oil all the time

I don't know who told you that but I think there may be a misunderstanding. Just make sure you clean around each plug before removing so that no dirt drops inside the cylinder. A little oil going in won't be a problem.

[Simon Jones]

Welcome to the forum. It's a fairly common issue with the rocket cover gasket. Quite a few examples here:

http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... il#p570662

http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... =Spark+oil

http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... =Spark+oil

http://igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/view ... =Spark+oil

New gaskets are readily available for about £30 per side and dont look to hard to change although I've not tried it myself.

A bit of oil in the cylinder wont cause any problems and will be unavoidable as you will need to remove the plug(s) to mop up the oil with a lint free cloth.

[anderz123]

Thanks for the responses and the useful links. I clearly need to get better at searching older posts before asking questions...I will try to do a bit more searching before I start asking where to buy new rocker gaskets.

In the defence of my mechanic I stopped paying attention at one point as I was thinking about my wallet.

[Simon Jones]

The good news is a gasket set is cheaper than I thought: £39

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAZDA-BONGO-1 ... 1c31537fe6

[anderz123]

Thanks Simon. Certainly cheaper than the genuine Mazda gaskets.