2000 Kawasaki Ninja 500-- Oil on Spark plug threads? Is this normal?

W

Will O

New member
I just bought a 2000 Ninja 500 and I was giving it a quick tune-up before I rode it. I just set the valves and took out a spark plug to go buy new ones, and I noticed that the threads of the plug had oil on them. Is this normal? I'm definitely looking for problems on this bike because it's used, so I can't remember if I've ever seen oil on the threads before. I DID just set the valves, and the spark plugs are sunk down into wells below the valves, so I thought some oil might have leaked down into there, is this possible? I also thought that since I left the plugs in when I was flipping the cams some oil might have been still on the cylinders or something and splashed up...


My question is this... What else could this be? I can't think of any problem that would put oil on the threads, so I assume it's either nothing or something terribly major. Has anyone else seen this, and what might cause it?
thanks
 
Oil shouldn't be getting down onto the spark plugs (or worse, up onto the spark plugs) but it's nothing major. My bet is that you need new valve cover seals, but frankly, unless it's using a little oil between oil changes, I wouldn't bother.
 
Oil shouldn't be getting down onto the spark plugs (or worse, up onto the spark plugs) but it's nothing major. My bet is that you need new valve cover seals, but frankly, unless it's using a little oil between oil changes, I wouldn't bother.
 
Back
Top