Over heat engine and spark plug wet? - 1991 Toyota Corolla

i think you should do minor engine service

It is a chicken and egg question - which came first, the wet plugs or the misfire?

Are the plugs wet with fuel or is it oil?
Are all the plugs equally wet?

If the ignition system is in good order and the correct spark plugs, correctly gapped and in good condition are fitted, it would be expected if the engine was receiving (moderately) too much fuel, it would keep running until the plugs were completely sooted, black and shorting out and unable to spark properly but at that moment the plugs would still be quite dry.
Persisting after this will of course cause wet plugs if the engine is still relatively cool but the sooty evidence of what has happened will still be there.

If the plugs are relatively clean but wet it is unlikely to be fuel as such large quantities that is would take to wet the plugs without any sooting it would be doubtful if the engine ran at all.

I hope I have provided you with food for thought. If you need to post again please provide accurate and detailed descriptions of the symptoms and what you have already checked.

If the plug is wet with fuel, it is an indication that the plug is not firing properly. Possible causes? Distributor cap, rotor, points/inductive pickup, spark plug wire or the spark plug itself. If you or a friend, relative, etc. has or has access to an inductive pickup timing light, connect the light to a power source and the inductive pickup to the plug wire of the "wet" spark plug. Start the engine and observe if the flash from the timing light is relatively constant in its frequency or is it erratic and sporadic. If the latter is true, check the distributor cap, rotor, distributor points/inductive pickup and plug wire. If the former is true, remove the spark plug and check the compression against other cylinders. If compression is good, replace the spark plug with a new one. If compression is lower than others, the air/fuel mixture in that cylinder is not being compressed engough for combustion, leaving the spark plug "wet". To learn the cause, put a teaspoon of motor oil in the spark plug hole, and recheck compression. If it doesn't increase, you probably have a valve or head gasket problem. If it does rise, you probably have a piston ring problem . Good luck

Get a compression check of all cylinders. Sounds like an oil control problem (valve guide seals or worn piston rings. A complete tune up might help some and you might try a hotter heat range on the spark plugs.

You need to find out if the fuel is reaching the cylinders and if the spark plugs are firing. Pull the spark plug wire off one plug. Insert a phillips head screwdriver into the end of the spark plug wire and ground it against a metal engine part. Try to start the car while observing the screwdriver. There should be a spark jumping from the screwdriver to the engine. If there is no spark, you will need to do further troubleshooting to find out why. Now, remove the spark plug that the wire cam from and check it for wet fuel. If the engine is getting fuel the plug will be wet with gasoline. If the plug is dry, Then either your fuel pump is not working or the fuel filter is plugged up. Let me know what you find and I will help you with further troubleshooting.

The spark plugs, if getting wet from the engine oil dripping off of the valve cover gasket, is not good.
The boots of the spark plug wires will prevent the contacts from getting oily, but not for long. I would have the valve cover gasket replaced to prevent this from happening. It's not good to get the spark plugs and wires wet with engine oil.

Need to check if you have spark. Remove one spark plug after cranking to see if it is dry or wet. If it is dry then there is no fuel. Problem is with the fuel pump relay. If it is wet then there is not spark or weak. To confirm, have the spark plug holding against the engine chasis to have ground then have a helper to start the engine, if there is no spark, then need to check the coil. The engine is only igniting when it has spark and fuel. Good Luck.

Take of spark plug after severval cranks, to see if it is wet.
1- If it dry, then you don't have fuel spraying in.
2- If it is wet then you have fuel spraying in. then go to the followings:
3- Crank the engine and hold the spark plug touching the chasis to see if it is sparking.
4- If it is not sparking then you have a problem with the ignition distributor.
5-If it is sparking then you need to check your engine compression.

The black color of the spark plugs indicate that the engine was running rich (too much fuel). The fact that they were wet tells me that there may not have been ignition. The carb being wet may be just from flooding when you tried to start the engine.
First off you need to determine if you are getting spark. You can do this by connecting one of the plugs to a wire and grounding it to the block. Have someone crank the engine and watch the plug for spark. Blue is good yellow is week. Use care holding the plug as it can give off a nasty kick. If you don't have spark than its time to check the wires, distributor cap, rotor and so on.

First make sure you do a basic tune-up on the car i.e. replacing spark plug wires, spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor button, etc. Secondly, the plugs are probably just wet from fuel from not starting. The low oil pressure light coming on is normal when trying to start the car. Make sure to check for codes too and don't press the accelerator when starting the car, otherwise it will flood the engine.