I am switching out the spark plugs on my '98 V70 AWD (201.5 K miles) and notice, on two of the spark plugs, that there appears to be oil deposits (cylinders 2 and 3, left to right, if I'm "reading" from the front of the car). I was planning to go ahead and just complete the spark plug job, but I'm concerned that there might be larger issues. Should I have my indy mechanic take a look before I plan on driving? Should I simply go ahead and change the spark plugs and hope for the best? The plugs had not been changed for 35,000 miles/3 years, 7 months, and the performance and gas mileage had recently declined (I posted about this a few days ago). Thanks!

When we got our first 850, I found a lot of oil on top of the engine, under the plastic cover.

The same was true of our other two 850s.

I checked under the cover after an oil change and found some fresh oil.

I installed a nice fat scrunchie around the filler and had no more problems.

Ask you wife or girlfriend what a scrunchie is.

What is an oil deposit? its either oil or not.
Are the spark plug wells dry ?

Wells are not exactly dry, and oil has been deposited on the spark plugs.

OIl can get in the wells from a leaky oil fill cap, it seeps down the sparkplug threads.

That's probably it! New oil filler cap on the way!

Just change the seal on the cap, $9.

If there is oil on the tops of the plugs where the wires plug in, then you would see a bunch on the top of the block and grab the cap seal.
If there is oil on the bottoms where the electrodes are, then there is likely crankcase pressure. Do the Robert from YouTube test -place a rubber glove over the filler hole with the engine running -careful of hot engine. If the glove inflates at all then you have crankcase pressure and should replace the PCV system. It's not a big deal, with the only hard part being the bolts under the manifold. The FCP video is good. I had oil on the plugs #1 & #2 This was the fix. The PCV hoses get very hot and fail after 40-50K+ miles, plus conventional oil gets toasted and crusty and clogs stuff up. I didn't have crust bc I use synthetic, but the hoses were messed up...
g-luck
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Farewell 'black manta' ('97 850) Hello 'rocket sled' ('06 V70R)