Spark Plugs One of my spark plugs is getting wet with oil, also I have a leak that looks like oil but the color is red. 2003 Dodge Neon, 4 cylinder, manual.

You should run a cylinder leak down test instead. If you run a compression test, you take out the spark plugs connect the pressure gauge to the engine in the spark plug hole and crank the engine. You want to make sure it does not start. Disconnect all the coils or remove all the spark plugs. NOTE that each cylinder may have different readings and this is normal. You are looking for big variances. It wont tell you if it is valves or rings though and a leak down test will.

Stop the oil leak. There are gaskets and seals for wherever it's leaking. Valve cover gaskets or seals on the cover if the plugs are recessed. Is the black stuff oil that gets splattered up there?
Spark plugs can keep firing even with oil around the base, but the cleaner the better. A clean engine runs a whole lot better and cooler than one caked in oil. Just don't try to pressure wash it or you'll have worse problems.
It would help you if you could isolate a non firing cylinder, find the one that's missing, I mean. There is a way to find a miss on a running engine by isolating a cylinder that doesn't drop idle speed when the plug wire to that cylinder is removed. But please have someone do it that has done it before. They will know what spark shock means, and how to avoid or mitigate it, or anticipate it-lol. Thatsa lotta voltage!
If you pull the spark plugs out, may help you find the bad cylinder: one will look quite different, may be all black and soot covered on the bottom that is inside the cylinder. Good firing spark plugs will have a tan or brown appearance down at the bottom, with very little deposits on them. (and if black and oily looking and wet, you have likely worn piston rings letting oil burn in there.) So if you could find the miss, it will help you a lot. Maybe you need a tune-up, after looking at your plugs-are they worn down real bad?
Lots of causes for a miss: ignition (plugs, wires, rotor, distributor cap, coil even), gas related (if multiport injection, possibly an injector problem) , and also an internal mechanical problem affecting that cylinder (like a bad sealing valve, a head gasket leak: do a compression test to check for that).
I hope I have helped you in some small way. Good luck.

common problem for dodge 4 cylinders...
never lower the oil level unless its real high on the dipstick..
you have the replace the spark plug guide seal.... it seals it from oil in the valve cover going into the spark plug guide and killing the spark... yes oil goes past the threads on the plug....

just did the valve cover on my 94 jaguar... has the same setup valve cover design

with 15 years experince as a mechanic it sounds to me that you have a blown head gasket that would result in antifreeze leaking into the oil system. which will cause what they call the choclate milkshake. the funny exhaust smell and white colored smoke is caused from the head gasket leaking coolant into the combustion chamber and when coolant gets into the combustion chamber it burns the coolant and forms a white smoke out of the exhaust that will have a sweet smell. replacing the head gasket and having the cylinder head checked at a machine shop will solve your problem. if you remove the spark plugs one at a time you will probally find one that is wet with a unusual color or may even find two spark plugs that way indicating head gasket blown between two cylinders which is most likely your problem. if not fixed soon driving will cause crankshaft bearing damage which results in engine lock up or crankshaft parts like a piston rod to start to knock or fly apart ruining your engine. i hope this helps you

This problem is caused by the seals around the spark plug wells leaking, to repair this you must remove the valve cover and replace the spark plug well seals (4 of them).

When it 'thawed out' did you see water leaking out from the sides of the engine on the bottom? Is there spark at the plug wires? If it truly was frozen due to no antifreeze, it should have leaked out of the 'freeze plugs' which were designed to alleviate the potential damage that would be caused if the water in the engine froze-insteading of cracking the block, the freeze plugs give the expanding ice a place to go (outside the engine) so that the engine is not destroyed. This brings us back to the question- Is there spark at the plugs? Did it actually leak fluid, or ice, from the freeze plugs? Check to see if there is spark, with the starting fluid, if it had spark it should have run long enough to know it should be alright. Remember, it has to have anrifreeze in it and if the freeze plugs are damaged, they have to be fixed first.

This caused by the valve cover gasket leaking, it is a common problem on this car, replace the valve cover gasket to correct the problem, the part is about $15 and takes about 1 hour to install.

if there is oil on the plugs you might need valve stem seals or rings in the engine

I just had this fixed on my suby today. The cause is that the spark plugs, go through the valve covers on the 2.5 l .When the o rings in the cover go, the result is oil in the spark plugs. The cost of the repair in Canada was about $500 including diagnostics as well as new plugs and wires About 1.5 hours labor and new seals and gaskets. It now runs like new. This is a common problem for this subaru engine as well as for the dodge neon.

if you removed spark plugs with oil around them,oil would have got into cylinders and made new plugs wet and not fire properly..it just burnt off oil and started working ok..it set a misfire code because of this most likely