1983 Plymouth Scamp GT
Chrysler 4Cyl 2.2L
I have a noticeable oil leak. So much so that oil will pool up on the head near the spark plugs. Right around every spark plug cable is fresh oil. When I clean it off, soon enough it's back again. It is right below where the cylinder head cover sits. Recently, I've begun to smell burning oil through my heater/defroster after 20 minutes or so. Just changed the oil and filter the other day, and it was low. So, losing oil somewhere. I'm curious about what could be causing this and the steps to go through to troubleshoot.
What do you think I should start with?
Compression test?
Combustion leak tester?
Is it possible my 32-year-old head gasket has simply met its maker and that's that? I am new to this niche of repair, but intuition tells me there may be an underlying problem that led to the gasket blowing. Maybe it overheated severely before I even got the car, since it's been oily like that as long as I've known. Can spark plugs be related to this? Fish out of water here.
Without depleting my life savings, what are some things I can do at home or some questions I can ask my mechanic, maybe even tests he can do to figure this out?