Oil Leaks........arrrghh!

[Joe]

I have two here if you want them lol one has 238k miles needs a rebuild and a 108k miles but it has a obd2 head so you'd need a head or rebuild your head and use the 108k short block

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Thank you for the kind offer, but we be far far away from each other............

[Joe]

Yes, mines the same and i have a can on each. They catch about the same amount of oil but the one from valve cover to intake tubing catches a ton more water than the other one. On both its mostly condensation that they catch.
Thise dont get plugged too easy, sorry, i meant the pcv valve itself gets plugged.
My nice, expensive, custom made, powder coated catch can:

And a cheap ebay one mounted underneath my battery thatbi couldnt get a good photo of.

Both have drains that are zip tied to my sway bar and i drain once a week. They take a long time to drain when it gets cold... i will be connecting both drains to the pan later on

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Thank you for posting the pics Ryan.
I was thinking that you had a catch can on each of those hoses, and your pics confirm it.

About the hose to the air intake on the right side.........wondering if that one even needs a catch can? What about just a long hose off the valve cover outlet [ like you have ] that terminates somewhere down at oil pan height. The blowby crapola can just spew out onto the ground.

I will make a similar catch can that you have for the pcv hose. I will make the drain large, so it's easier to empty.


Got the new water pump on yesterday, the new cam seal and crank seal installed and the disty O ring replaced. The old crank seal was still supple, but the cam seal was very brittle and broke off in chunks when I was removing it. Ditto for the disty O ring.

Spent half my day cleaning the oily yucky grunge off the parts. Still have to remove the alt and de-grunge it too.

Eventually. I will wash the engine [ as I did 4 years ago ].......if the oil leaking problem is solved.

I did note that the trans pressure plate was not oily when replacing the oil pan gasket, so I'm assuming that the rear main seal is no too bad at this point.


The trans axle fluid......... just use ATF? I need to check the level when I'm under there today.

[WmWatt]

Pretty sure it's illegal to dump engine garbage "on the ground" or road. In grandad's day the crancase vented to the atmopshere but the PCV was invented and mandated to stop that. I know parts of BC, just like parts of Ontario, are outside the emissions testing area, but the PCV system to keep the crankcase garbage enclosed is required pretty well everywhere.

[TominMO]

Pretty sure it's illegal to dump engine garbage "on the ground" or road. In grandad's day the crancase vented to the atmopshere but the PCV was invented and mandated to stop that. I know parts of BC, just like parts of Ontario, are outside the emissions testing area, but the PCV system to keep the crankcase garbage enclosed is required pretty well everywhere.

Read the para under the 2nd pic. You probably just missed it. He's not venting to atmosphere.

[ryanprins13]

Pretty sure it's illegal to dump engine garbage "on the ground" or road. In grandad's day the crancase vented to the atmopshere but the PCV was invented and mandated to stop that. I know parts of BC, just like parts of Ontario, are outside the emissions testing area, but the PCV system to keep the crankcase garbage enclosed is required pretty well everywhere.

Read the para under the 2nd pic. You probably just missed it. He's not venting to atmosphere.

Im not venting, but joe wants to.

Thank you for posting the pics Ryan.
I was thinking that you had a catch can on each of those hoses, and your pics confirm it.

About the hose to the air intake on the right side.........wondering if that one even needs a catch can? What about just a long hose off the valve cover outlet [ like you have ] that terminates somewhere down at oil pan height. The blowby crapola can just spew out onto the ground.

I will make a similar catch can that you have for the pcv hose. I will make the drain large, so it's easier to empty.


Got the new water pump on yesterday, the new cam seal and crank seal installed and the disty O ring replaced. The old crank seal was still supple, but the cam seal was very brittle and broke off in chunks when I was removing it. Ditto for the disty O ring.

Spent half my day cleaning the oily yucky grunge off the parts. Still have to remove the alt and de-grunge it too.

Eventually. I will wash the engine [ as I did 4 years ago ].......if the oil leaking problem is solved.

I did note that the trans pressure plate was not oily when replacing the oil pan gasket, so I'm assuming that the rear main seal is no too bad at this point.


The trans axle fluid......... just use ATF? I need to check the level when I'm under there today.

No problem.
2 reasons not to do that, or more. One is that that is where the air is drawn into the valve cover, so if you do a hose like your thinking then your drawing in unmetered air as well as whatever dust and dirt is blowing around under your car. Second is it may be illegal where you are, look into it. It will coat the underside of your car with whatever blows out more so than spilling it onto the road though.
Good to see that your making lots of progress i spent a lot of time cleaning parts especially under the timing cover, it sucks. I would still reccomend washing the engine as soon as your done before driving it so you can see where any new leaks are. Brake cleaner that sprays hard does wonders. As does hot water in a pressure washer
For the transaxle the manuals use atf but some people put gear oil in. They dont really mix. So check it first and if its red and needs some add atf. Thats most likely whats in there.



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[TominMO]

Im not venting, but joe wants to.

Ah, missed that.

[Joe]

Well, after going for a 2hr drive yesterday, i got home and looked for oil under the hood. There was oil around the oil filler cap on the valve cover, and it was heading towards the pass side of the valve cover and dripping down the front of the valve cover toward the head and spark plugs. Crapp!

By my thinking, that oil had to be coming from either the oil cap.......maybe I didn't tighten it enough but I doubt it, or coming from the short pig-tail hose off the valve cover to the plastic intake.

I'm still not clear on what that pig-tail hose going from the valve cover to the intake actually does? At idle, when I pull the hose off the valve cover, i feel pulses of pressure with each piston firing. When I rev the engine......still have my hand over said valve cover, the felt pulses disappear. Further, the orifice opening in the black plastic intake for that hose has a very small opening, like .125" or less.........even though that hose is 1/2" diameter. I'm thinking that is where the oil is coming from. I'm thinking that that small orifice can't keep up to the blow by, and oil is coming out the hose on the valve cover, because the air / gasses under the valve cover are pressurized. Further, the little pcv can't keep up with the amount of pressure under the valve cover either.
Thoughts?

What about that hose that comes off the drivers side of the intake and goes to some ?valve? It is the long hose that heads back towards the fire wall. There are other hoses there too, with at least one with coolant in it. What does that hose / valve-thingy do?

I bought some 2" copper fittings and brass barbed fittings for making a catch can. I have some 2" copper pipe that i will use a piece of, and will design it with inside baffle and SS scrubber so gasses coalesce and drop the liquids to the bottom. Have a large drain to install on the bottom. The "cleaner" air will run back to the manifold [ if I install it on the pcv side ]. But, the same old thought.......the small pcv does not seem capable of moving much vapor. I pulled the pcv hose off the manifold with the engine idling, and of course it died right away. Can i install a larger, better breathing pcv in place of the little oem one?

Once I know for sure the purpose of the other "pig-tail" hose on the valve cover, I can better figure out how to stop it from blowing oil out. Still have too much blow-by pressure under the valve cover.

[Joe]

Can someone please tell me what these two hoses do?

They both connect to the air intake, and I know for certain that I have blow by vapors coming from the upper one that connects to the valve cover. Don't know what the lower one does however.

I need to determine if I need an oil catch can on both the upper hose [ with pink arrow ] and the pcv hose.

I got this pic off the forum. Brian, thank you for the use of your pic to help explain my post.

[ryanprins13]

One closer to the rad goes to the idle air control valve
One farther back is supposed to let air into the valve cover so the pcv hose has something to suck out. When your blowby gets to be more than the pcv can suck then it blows up that hose as well.
Check your oil cap to see if the gasket has fallen out or is in real bad shape. The breather hose gets real brittle over time and the clamp cannot seal it and it leaks onto the valve cover. Check how hard yours is

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[Joe]

One closer to the rad goes to the idle air control valve
One farther back is supposed to let air into the valve cover so the pcv hose has something to suck out. When your blowby gets to be more than the pcv can suck then it blows up that hose as well.
Check your oil cap to see if the gasket has fallen out or is in real bad shape. The breather hose gets real brittle over time and the clamp cannot seal it and it leaks onto the valve cover. Check how hard yours is

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Thank you for the info Ryan. That helps me better understand the problems with this blow by problem.
I'll look at the oil cap gasket and the breather hose for brittleness and poor sealing.