Changed the spark plugs to NGK Iridium... pulled them out one by one and some(4) had oil on the threads, with one of them totally loose. Also, I've had ticking issues in the engine from that very spot(injector?).

What's it all mean?

Update: Now i have a rough idle... pinging/ticking seems to be gone...

 

leaky spark plug seals can cause oil to give a rough idle, electronically it shouldn't but...., maybe time to change the cam cover seals - the boss seals should come with the cam seals as a kit if you buy the Ford version? Clean the plug boot internals and make sure there's no oil anywhere except inside the engine...
NGK IR5N are the biz for our engines. Should be 0.9-1.0mm gap.

So the tick was a loose sparkplug?

 

I guess a loose spark plug could bleed out a bit of combustion gas pressure & cause a ticking noise. I once had a simliar noise from an old BMW which turned out to be a leaking exhaust manifold gasket. Fitted a new gasket & the noise disappeared...

 

The issue i've struggled with the pinging/ticking in the engine in recent posts was all due to a spark plug that was totally out of its socket.

I reset the car and the rough idle is gone.

I have to say, these cars are built tough. I had no fault codes or anything this whole time except a leak in the air intake. The NGK Iridiums are making my car hum like i havent see it run in a long time. What gratification.

I saw that the throttle body needs to be cleaned though, but I need to install the shocks first. Slowly picking my way thru issues to make the car right.

 

Those are the kind of cheap & easy repairs we all hope for

I recently had all the plugs out on mine-cleaned them & checked the gaps. They were relatively new anyway & the engine has always had the smoothest idle of any car I've ever owned.

My previous car was a 1995 V12 Daimler Double Six which had one of the spark plugs half-screwed in by the previous owner. The slight combustion gas 'blow-by' had partly corroded the plug thread & it was a pig to remove from the alloy head-lots of penetrating oil & very careful back-forth rotation of the plug to get it out of the head without damaging the thread in the head...

 

You have no idea how thrilled I am to solve that pinging/ticking issue by just a spark plug change. I have ALWAYS used top oil and 93 octane fuel since i got the car with 38k miles(145k now), i think thats paying off. Now i can move onto to suspension and then upgrading performance

 

Exactly right. Another thread about "loose plugs" caused me to go cruising.

A huge long thread at bimmerforums about loose plugs causing a hard to diagnose ticking problem. Of course, it is easier for them now because their thread is 4 years old and more posts regularly from new cases.

Bosch plugs every time it seems ... according to *their* tracking.