2002 F150 5.4L V8.
Passenger bank, increasingly worse the closer to the firewall. I have an idea, but I want to make sure.

Besides rings? I don't think so.

And it doesn't look like you have much time before a rebuild! Miles?

235,000. Why do you say that?

I was expecting valve cover gasket. Piston rings sound difficult.

The electrode looks dry to me. If so, oil leak above the plug?

The last 2 fords I owned both had leaking head gaskets at +/- 50,000, and both were 5.4s Look in the valley between the valve covers and see if there's a puddle of oil.

ETA: Both were pressure leaks too, wouldn't leak unless I had the truck in a strain. Found out later it was a known problem from ford that the gaskets were bad order.

I think head gasket....engine sits slightly lower at back allowing leaked oil to run towards the back of the engine.....

What SpentBrass said ^^^^^^

Valve guide seals. When you get that many miles on it you start getting deposits and it starts to restrict the oil flowing back into the pan from the valve train ( rockers and pushrods). Valve have seals where they protrude out of the head on the rocker arm side. These even when new sometimes leak and when you have that many miles they are more than likely worn out anyway or broken. When the oil builds up in the heads and can't drain back fast enough from the deposits it will find these worn/ broken valve seals and it will run down the valve into the cylinder. That would be my guess but that's a lot of oil.

I don't see an oil consumption issue on those spark plugs. I do see signs of an external oil leak, remember an oil leak goes down and back. So the source should be easy to find.

On a 2002 5.4 liter you are MUCH more likely to break a camshaft than have oil consumption issues......

This is what a spark plug looks like when you "need an engine".

So by external, you mean a gasket or plug seal? Oil consumption is oil from below the plug in the cylinders? I just want to make sure I understand.

The oil is external...outside the engine block and settling in the depressions where to spark plugs go.....not oil in the cylinder....

Valve cover gasket......thick oil, no way that's blow by.

Yes exactly. Sorry missed this somehow

I guess it's the 'ash' colored table top behind the spark plug but when I first commented on it, it looked exactly like the plug in the above picture (#12 on the pic). I guess it was an optical illusion when I glanced @ it.

If it's an external leak, (and oil level has been dropping a good bit between changes and for a while), you'll also have 'wetting' down the firewall and all underneath the vehicle - careful it will eat/soften rubber suspension components over time.

Yeah, there is a substantial drop in oil level. There could be some on the firewall, but I haven't seen any on the undercarriage.

Thank God. I've been waiting on your reply for a week. Afraid you had seen or knew something I didn't. Thank you for following up.

That's just what it looks like when you "Need new PLUGS" HAHA

Ok, so I've torn down to the valve cover. Here are some pictures. Any observations are welcome, and needed!

What are you looking for under there? I am guessing you are trying to slow down the oil leaks..

Since I've had this truck, the passenger bank has always had oil on the spark plugs. I finally got rid of the family for the weekend and got the courage to take off the cover. I think this is the problem, but since I don't know engines from the inside out, I wanted to crowd source a picture of the area to see if there are any other issues that need to be addressed before I put it back together.

Change them plugs and valve cover gaskets. Plug looks like it had some miles on it and the oil is from the outside not inside. It gets trapped in them durn spark plug holes.

Water will too and youll get rusty nasty fouled out plugs. Ive changed em a bunch. Youll be fine. Turn key and drive on.