Valve cover gasket & P0300 DTC

Hi there, my first message in this wonderful forum. I'm from Spain (nobody is perfect) and expect an horrible English from now on.

I`ve been facing some rough engine behave since one week aprox, and low battery due to aging, curiously it only happened when the engine warm and never on cold start... I changed the battery and it improved a bit but was there. Installed an ELM usb odb interface and got an very worrying P0300 dtc which mean a lot of parts can be involved, followed some days later by a P0302 & P0303 cylinder 2 and 3 which share the coil. Finally found (checking the coils) that cyl 2 had some oil mixed with water (perhaps coming from condesation) forming a strange beige sauce like mayonaisse (the engine oil is perfect, no coolant in it). The gasket part of the second cylinder is not ok sure.
Y dry the spark, the hole itself and everything was ok. Just was putting this info to add another possible reason for the P0300 and P030X DTC codes. Curious how this liquid allows to start and warm the engine normally and when hot the fail appears, maybe something related to conductivity...
Let me ask a question related to the spark part of the gasket:
Is it a common fail?
Can be reinforced with some sealant?

Cheers
Pedro
 
 

Hi and welcome!

English is not my first language either.
I have seen this mayo-ish oil years ago in my Ford Escort and with me it was condensation and cheap and bad motor oil.
The mayonaise filled the dip stick tube and parts of the valve cover insides.

But where did you find it? Inside the cylinder no 2?
Or inside the valve cover?

I would change the Oil for a good one and Try again. Are you high up in Spain or by the warm coast? Cold weather can make condensation.

A New gasket is not so expensive. 

Hi Yakuza, thks for your kind answer.
I'm sorry, I think didn't explained it properly. The oil inside the engine is ok, checked and changed recently, the mixture I'm referring is outside the inner part of the valve cover, just in the spark hole, and my guess is that this mayoish aspect is due to some oil leaking from the gasket and some water coming from "condensation". The funny part is that it doesn't conducts electricity from the coil to ground when cold, it does when the engine warms up. Anyway it's a small amount and I'll change the gasket very soon (yet ordered one).
I was asking for advice on how to prevent it with the new gasket if it's a common fail or should I leave the gasket as it is.
The annoying part of this issue is that you get first a general misfire DTC (P0300) and no one more, this means a lot of sensors and pieces involved. Only after a lot of test and checks you'll arrive to a more specific errors than can point you to check the right solution, and all of this mixed with the error only appearing when the engine is warm.
Hope it can help others
Cheers