Now, im not sure about this bmw, but I know when I pulled them out of my old lincoln, they wern't covered in oil, but then again, that thing never really had any oil in it anyway. But yeah, these things shouldn't be covered in oil, right?

And could this cause misfiring?

 

covered in oil is not a good thing. It can either be blowby or oil getting into your intake somehow like through your pcv .

I am not certain on the missfire but I am sure the oil soaked plugs arent helping. It could definately be one of your problems.

 

take off the valve cover and replace all of the gaskets

 

too much effort. I'll probably end up doing it anyway though. I replaced the plugs, it runs better, but still not as good as it was last week. Granted, I bought the cheapest f'in plugs there.

 

if there’s oil were your plugs are there’s lil circle gaskets and there more then likely leaking .... I had this problem one time

 

it sounds like valve guide seals but could also be piston rings causing blow by tip you should use the spark pluds the book recomends that might help your studder

 

I've worked on alot of bmw's for several years. They all end up leaking past the spark plug seals and cause problems with the coil packs. Replace the valve cover gasket, spark plug gaskets, and grommets. Be careful with that valve cover as the m50 cover has this shitty paint that likes to flake off, try not to get it in the engine. If you have an m52 engine the cover is plastic and can be a bitch to get off sometimes and might crack. Good luck and make sure to clean oil residue off the coil pack boots.