For the past few weeks my SES light has been on. The idle was low and became rough while in drive and at a stop (500rpm). I thought it was a blown head gasket so I was preparing for the worst. Today I got my compression tester and checked it out. Here are the results:

Even bank had sooted spark plugs, Odd bank looked perfectly normal.
Engine has 117k miles on it and I am pretty sure these were the original plugs
Spark plugs 1, 6, 7, 8 had the electrodes worn almost completely down.
The other plugs appeared to have about half as much wear as the other plugs

Compression is as follows: (Cyl, PSI)

8, 180 7, 175
6, 180 5, 190
4, 180 3, 190
2, 210 1, 190

So obviously I don't have a blown head gasket. Is there something common that I should be looking at? I am thinking O2 sensors but I want to wait until I get my scanner and can pull the codes.

The engine is stock with the exception of a cold air intake. Thanks for any help you can provide me.

 

Oh yeah,

I replaced the plugs with Autolite double platinums and the rough idle is gone. I would hope the problem is solved other than the fact that the whole passenger side bank was sooted up. I am still thinking O2 sensor for some reason....

 

Get it scanned at AutoZone for free and get back to us with the codes. We can pin-point the problem much easier with trouble-codes.

 

I'm in California. If there's one thing liberals hate more than straight, white, religious conservative single men, it's people who maintain their own cars. As of last year it is now illegal for car part stores to offer scanning services in CA. So much for them looking out for the 'poor'.

I have a scan tool that will hook my car up to my laptop on order. Should be here soon.

 

Do your self a favor and stop guessing on what might be wrong, and only act after reading the codes and talking with us.
You will probably want to replace your grey, factory plug wires with some good 8 mm STI or Magnacor wires for starters, that is after reading your codes.
And just so you don't get carried away, nothing you have mentioned indicates head gaskets.