Lots Of Oil On Valve Covers

[Hallett19]

I have a PCV on one valve cover and a breather on the other and after a few wide open blasts, I have a good amount of oil on the valve covers and even a little out of the oil dipstick hole. Does that mean I need to re-ring my motor soon ?

[dmontzsta]

It could be blow bye, or you could have a small leak somewhere.

[Hallett19]

blow by meaning oiling rings are bad ? How could a leak cause a good amount of oil on my valve covers ?

[mirvin]

Hey Hallett19, check your oil for gas. You could be having carb problems. If the carb floods after shut down the gas dumps onto the pistons and seeps into the crank case thus thinning the oil causing pseudo blowby;)
This happened to me recently and a carb rebuild solved the problem.
mirvin

[1stepcloser]

First thing, make sure you have the proper oil level. ie; it's not over full.
You said you have a PCV valve, Make sure it isnt clogged, and that is is functioning properly.
A PCV valve, by design should help to reduce blow-by, by creating a slight vacuum within the crankcase. The interesting thing here is you also have a breather in the other cover. That sort of works to negate the effect of the PCV, and in effect creates a slight vacuum leak.
Likely, the excessive blow-by is unfortunately, caused by wear.
As you said, lots of oil on the valve covers, and particularly coming up the dipstick tube would indicate to me, worn rings.

[dmontzsta]

Originally posted by Hallett19
blow by meaning oiling rings are bad ? How could a leak cause a good amount of oil on my valve covers ?
Hallet, you are right...that sounds stupid, I didnt realize what I was typing and things sound differently once you read them again.
When I said it I was more "shunning" it like "could be" but I really think it is a leak, blow bye does not make sense. 1 step, you need to do a compression test if you are worried. We just had this similar problem. It ended up being a slight leak from the intake manifold gasket and the wind would fling it up and back. Check around for wet spots first.

[FlatRat]

I also had oil out of the dipstick,would even blow the the dipstick out at high revs.Come to find out that when I installed the new breathers I didn't make the hole big enoughin the grommet.Built up too much crank pressure.:D

[RedRocket]

sounds exactly like blow by to me and it makes perfect sense. When the compression rings are going the cumbustion pressure escapes into the bottom end , pressurizing it and causing your symptoms, do a compression test. Your pcv set-up is as it should be, with a healthy engine, fresh air is drawn through the breather through the engine and out the pcv and burnt in the engine.

[Hallett19]

I pulled out my PCV and tested it vs. a new one, and when I suck on the nipple ( :D hahaa) the new one is much less restrictive and never completley closes up, where the other one I can barely breath through. I put it in and I will share the results next week ! Dmontzsta, I value your advice, you dont need to apologize for anything, I will see how this new PCV valve works, keep your fingers crossed for me :)

[Hallett19]

Originally posted by mirvin
Hey Hallett19, check your oil for gas. You could be having carb problems. If the carb floods after shut down the gas dumps onto the pistons and seeps into the crank case thus thinning the oil causing pseudo blowby;)
This happened to me recently and a carb rebuild solved the problem.
mirvin
My fuel has a smell kind of like fuel, but I dont know if that is the normal oil smell or if its spilling fuel into the motor. How would I be able to tell if the carb is doing this ? I recently had a carb rebuild done. I have a fuel pressure guage, will that thing go down real quick if there is a leak ? I NEED HELP !!

[Tom Foolery]

Other more simple causes that might show as blow by.
1: If the hole in the valve cover that the breather sits over is small the velocity of any blow by will be faster than if you had a larger hole. This will blow oil out easier than it should.
2: If the location of the breather is such that a oil is being slung into the breather that will aid in oil coming out the breathers. I placed a small baffel over the breather hole spaced off by 1/4" to stop this.
If there wasn't a problem before and there is one now. Its probably the sign of a problem. I had a blow by problem that occured right after I changed valve covers on my boat & the above changes solved it.

[Little Wood Boat]

Tom Foolery's answers 1 and 2 are most likely. My #3 would be head gasket blown leaking into lifter valley, no water just normal compression will build up in the top end and push oil out. Common problem with BBC that spit a head gasket on 3/5 or 4/6 cyllinders. Off to a good mech. to do a leakdown test. LWB

[tbanzer]

Are you sure you should have a pcv valve. When the motor is under load the pcv valve is closed because there is no manifold vacuum. The one breather maynot be able to allow enough ventilation. I would use breathers on both valve covers