oil in the air intake

[rerhard]

there's oil in the intake tube where the air filter box in my festiva. all i want to know is it something easy to fix.

[FB71]

depends on what caused it...

clogged PCV valve... easy fix, replace the valve.

excessive blow-by past the rings... engine rebuild.

[skeeters_keeper]

I had the same problem, after only a few hundred miles i would have a lot of oil in the intake.

easy check for the PCV valve: pull it out and blow/suck through it. you should only be able to pull air through it one way.

if thats fine, do a compression test. mine had somewhat low compression on all the cylinders and real low on the #2. I replaced the engine w/ a B6, the B3 is sitting in the garage i haven't pulled it apart yet to see how bad the rings were but i drove it for about 6months after i was getting a bunch of oil in the intake and it was still OK, just lost a little power and it would miss at idle and stuff sometimes.

[jglutz]

Could be a combination of shot valve stem seals and valve guides....

Rerhard: are you burning oil or see any blue-ish smoke coming out the tail pipe?

If your not into advanced engine diagnostics...doing a compression test or vacuum test...at least change the PCV (<$5) and clean every thing up (all of the air intake tubes and hoses) and keep an eye on it.

Also change the oil and put in 10W-40 or something heavier, name brand. tThe best thing...maybe your oil is cheap or just past do.

[rerhard]

There's no blue-ish smoke coming out the tail pipe. The oil's not due for another 1500 miles and I put 20-50 oil I hope that's not too heavy for the car. I did clean out the pcv valve and the hose that connects to it. If it still does it, I'll change the pcv. If it still has the same problem, I guess either a b6 or b8 will be the replacement.

[IL4Festiva]

Sorry to jack this post a bit but i dont want to start another thread over something so small
is there any benefit in changing the PCV unless you have reason to think it is faulty?

[worfdog]

one reason is they are cheap.i don't even bother cleaning them,i just replace. i most of the time replace them once a year.

[elcamino1]

There's only one answer and FB71 had it.
20w50 or 10w40 won't solve the problem.
10w30 oil is fine for your engine.

[SimonTuffGuy]

I had the same problem with the B6 I had installed in my last Festiva. I put an oil catch can inbetween the PCV valve and the intake tube to catch any oil that was coming out... If I was hard on the car in a day, I'd have to empty the can the same day (just a small collection tube... probably less than a 1/8 of a cup or something)...

That will help keep the oil out of the intake tube, but it doesn't solve the problem... For me? I think my valve stem seals as posted above were the problem.

Good luck getting it fixed.

[scitzz]

I seem to need new valve stem seals/valve lapping about every 120k or so with mine.....

[Dave G]

Both of my cars have been doing that to varying degrees ever since I've had 'em. Just part of their character :-)

[rerhard]

*Update* I checked the intake again and it still had oil in it. So replaced the pcv and put 10-30 oil in it. Before I did all that I put gumout engine flush in it to clean it up since the car didn't run for 2 years before I bought it. So now the car has more pick up than before and it idles better.

[ejp2fast]

Pop the PCV valve off of the valve cover and disconnect. Shake it and if you hear it rattle it means that the PCV is working.. if it does not rattle it is clogged and needs to be cleaned. Can someone confirm this? This is going off of memory in my repair manual.

[worfdog]

Pop the PCV valve off of the valve cover and disconnect. Shake it and if you hear it rattle it means that the PCV is working.. if it does not rattle it is clogged and needs to be cleaned. Can someone confirm this? This is going off of memory in my repair manual.

that's the way i have always checked them.

[SIBladerunner]

A little oil isn't that much to get excited about. Yes, it should be clean, but as the engines in these cars get older so do the seals, sometimes the vacuum on the PCV could be a little strong and suck a little oil. Now if there is a lot of oil there, then you should be worried, but a few drops isn't bad, unless you just rebuilt the engine. These cars are on average 17+ yrs old