Oil on spark plugs when changing...Is it a wrap on my car?

[Odyssey113]

So after a few days of dealing with a misfire (blinking CEL. Also 4 out of 5 codes showed this) my car finally decided to not start so easily the other night. I was hard pressed to get back home so I had kept pushing it to start by slamming on the gas to try to force start it. It finally started after almost a half hour of trying...I drove it home that night and parked it.

Next day, the car refused to start at all, so I decided to try to swap out the plugs in hopes that this was the only issue. When changing the plugs, I had found that the tips seemed to be soaked in oil, I believe 4 our of 5 of them. After changing them, the car would still not start.

I am just seeking advice as to trying to diagnose this as to where to start. I'm thinking the head gasket blew but I am not necessarily a mechanic so Im not sure. The car is kind of on its last leg with me monetarily. It's to the point that I need to cash out soon if this is not a $500 or less type of repair especially since the car has had lingering electrical issues.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

[abscate]

If you got oil into the wells, they probably got oiled when you removed them.

What codes do you read?

Most likely candidate on a late P80 is a bad coil, at $50 and 6 minutes of labor

Once misfiring starts, you can turn a $50 repair into a $2000 repair quickly. Pushing it home isn't very economical compared to a tow

[Odyssey113]

The codes that it was throwing before I started the repair were these:
P0300- Generic random misfire
P0237- Turbo/Supercharger boost sensor A circuit low
P0236- Turbo/Supercharger boost sensor A circuit range performance
P0303- Generic Cylinder 3 misfire detected
P0302- Generic Cylinder 2 misfire detected
P0305- Generic Cylinder 5 misfire detected
P0301- Generic Cylinder 1 misfire detected

As far as checking the coils, is there any logical way to test these or am i better off buying 5 new ones and replacing them. I just don't want to be dumping money into this if the issue is larger, such as an oil leak, a cracked head or head gasket, etc.

[BigNerd]

Just a bit of general knowledge... oil on plugs would mean that a seal, or seals to the system are compromised. That would be bad rings or bad valve seals. It would be unusual to have oil on all your plugs in the case of a failure of rings or valve stem seals. Oily plugs would not be consistent with a head gasket failure. Dead giveaways of head gasket failure are coolant in your oil, unexplained loss of coolant, or white smoke from the tailpipe when running. On my old car I've found that running rich or with a crappy spark can leave a residue that looks like oil on the plugs.

To calm your mind about head gasket failure, try a compression test, that will reveal all.

Its also odd that all the cylinders would misfire at the same time. I suggest looking for a fault that would be common to all, like a wiring harness connection that's loose or corroded. Also possible would be a crank or cam position sensor, which are used to trigger coil firing. There is also usually a driver module for the coils, failure of that could also span all 5.

The Volvo specialist gurus will have better information, but I hope this is at least helpful in getting near the problem.

[abscate]

It's likely you have a bad leak in your turbo induction that is being reported as a boost pressure leak.

Ignore the misfires until you can get it running smoothly. Running rough will trip spurious codes

Take off each piece of tubing and inspect for holes and splits

[Wright Sounds]

Recently, the gasket on my oil-filler cap cracked, unbeknownst to me, until I got a flashing CEL light telling me mis-fire in cylinder 2. I removed the plastic covers showing my coils and there was oil pooled up everywhere. Needless to say it leaked under the ignition coils and down onto the spark plugs. I cleaned it up best I can, replaced the plugs and coil #2 and so far, so good.

If this happened to you, I think you'd see oil everywhere though.