help plz

Hi my girlfriend has a 99 zx2 with 78000 miles on it. it has been idleing a little roughf. so i changed the plugs and when i took them out there was oil on them there was a little oil on the bottom of the plug wires. what is the casues of this, changing the plugs did not help out the idle any. also
when you press on the gas at low speeds it does not go very smothley it is kind of jerkey. could it be an o2 sensor. there is no check engine lite on. any help is appreciated thanks.

I havent had the valve cover off of mine, but since the plugs drop down through it, there has to be an o-ring around each one to seal them from the oil, so I'd think your valve cover gasket/seals are bad or you could try just re-torqueing the cover to the proper spec before replacing them.

The other deal is probably plug wires. Ford's wires lately have been crap. I don't think they are any good when new, but at the mileage you've got, they gotta be on the way out.

Oil breaks down a spark plug wire's boot's ability to insulate against unwanted spark discharge to places other than the spark plug, so if the wires have been sitting in a puddle of oil down in the plug bores, they may be intermittantly firing through the boots to the engine and causing misfire.

thanks for the help i will get new wires and fix the leak today and let you know if it fixes the problem.. Thanks Jeff

get 9mm FR wires while you're at it...

thanks for all the help i replaced the valve gasket and changed plugs and wirers now its like new. are the 9mm wires really better i got the 8mm bosch thats all they had. but i will get the 9mm if better. thanks for the help