Help! Oil on the Spark Plug Coils...

[mikeyphotog]

So I've had my Suby(2006 Impreza 2.5i, the non-turbo) for 4.5 years now, I've put all 95.8k on it myself and have had no problems.

I'm doing a little work on my car so I can have some peace of mind on the road trip coming up this weekend, and when I went to change the spark plugs, I pulled the first coil off, and noticed a good amount of oil in there(out of the plug that is next to the battery closet to the front of the car) and then pulled another coil off the other side of the engine(also closest to the front of the car) and the same amount of oil in that spark plug. I haven't pulled the plugs yet, wondering if this is normal for subys, or boxer engines in general, or if this is a bad sign(ie, blown head gasket or something).

It appears that the majority of the oil is right around the seal, I've attached pictures where I pointed to it with a screwdriver. When I stuck a rolled up paper towel down around the seal of the spark plug, only a tiny amount of oil was picked up.

Any and all help is much appreciated.

Some other notes: car runs great, was driving it right before I started to do work on it and no problems or anything weird, no problems since the day I bought it, it usually burns about 2qts of oil per 5k OCI, absolutely love this car.

[EvoEatr]

You are most likely going to have to replace your valve cover gaskets along with the spark plug tube seals. the tube seal is what you are pointing to with the screwdriver. the good news is that the N/A motors are much easier to do than the boosted ones or the H6. They do leak a tad, however I consider any oil leaking from a seal to be abnormal fore obviously it didnt come from the factory with the intent of a "small oil leak there"...

[vr4drivin]

check you valve cover's might be loose