Blowing oil out dipstick tube and back of oil pan. What to do?

[Chrisk]

Im blowing oil out the dipstick tube and the back of my oil pan. This is a new built engine. Im running a delco pcv and have breathers in each valve cover.
What can i do to resolve this? Undercarriage is a mess...

Thanks,
Chris

 

[JST A 6]

Im blowing oil out the dipstick tube and the back of my oil pan. This is a new built engine. Im running a delco pcv and have breathers in each valve cover.
What can i do to resolve this? Undercarriage is a mess...

Thanks,
Chris

PCV valves are cheap enough; try another one as the one you got may be defective. Also maybe try an inline check valve with the PCV valve. Hopefully your ring gaps aren't too wide or lining up with each other, and head gaskets are sealing so as to not let cylinder pressure reach the lifter valley or oil passages...:frown: How's your compression?

 

[Chrisk]

ok thanks, i have a check valve on order but wasnt sure it would solve it.

 

[ericmccann]

i was thinking the same thing (PCV Valve). You're building pressure in the crankcase, forcing oil out of whereever it can find an escape route (usually the dipstick). I had the same problem on my 1981 Fiat Spider 2000 motor when I converted it to a Turbo motor. Had to re-route the crankcase breather so that it was not under pressurized air, but instead needed it to be on VAC only. That solved my problem on that motor.

As far as the GN, the same principle/concept applies. Try another PCV valve and if in doubt, add a check valve and MAKE SURE that all of your VAC lines are good and that the check valves which should be in place a re actually there and functioning correctly. This could be a $15 fix.

Good luck,

Eric McCann
Germantown, WI

 

[8AV8]

I fought what I thought was a pcv problem for a few weeks....only to find that after the new rebuild that the intake wasn't sealing properly. After the heads and block were trued up , the intake needed to be cut. A leaky intake will cause a bad blowby problem. Did you make sure the intake didn't need a cut?

 

[Chrisk]

I did not build the engine. But I did a boost leak test and air did not leak out from the intake.

 

[8AV8]

Mine was leaking from the bottom of the runner. The top was sealed. I couldn't tell from the outside either.

 

[87GNSteve]

An open breather on the valve cover solved the same problem for me.

 

[Chrisk]

An open breather on the valve cover solved the same problem for me.

I have a breather in each valve cover.

 

[gossamer]

I agree with 8AV8. It could be leaking from the bottom of the intake. Do you see any smoke out of the exhaust during idle or deceleration? That is a good sign the intake isn't sealed at the bottom of the ports and sucking through the lifter valley. That would pressurize your crankcase under boost.

 

[turbows6]

If you are getting enough crankcase pressure to blow oil out of the dipstick tube on a new motor with breathers in both valve covers I can promise that a pcv valve isn't going to fix it. At best it will need intake or head gaskets, but if they didn't seal up on a fresh build you probably have warped surfaces somewhere.

 

[8AV8]

Take the car out and run it. Give it full throttle and let off of the gas. As soon as you let off the gas (going from boost to vac) if the intake is leaking from the bottom, you will be able to see it in the runners.

As soon as you let off the throttle...shut the car off and coast to the side of the road. Do it in a safe place. Take enough tools to pull the upper plenum. Mine was leaking enough to SEE the oil in the intake runners. Does it puff smoke when you let off of the throttle? If you can't see...get somebody next to drive next to you so they can see.

If you had the heads and block machined and not the intake...I bet that is your problem. The orientation of the intake changes as the heads would have been "lowered". Your talking about thousandths...and it doesn't take alot to screw you up.

Oh yeah...what intake gasket are you using?

 

[8AV8]

Did you find the problem?

 

[KevinB]

Lose the pcv and get a vac pump.

 

[Chrisk]

Yes, the problem was to much oil. I have a girdle and crank scraper. Even that the girdle causes the pan to drop 1/2" and it act like allowing more oil capacity plus having a RJC Pan. The crank is a stroker crank which is bigger and causes oil to sling more. Then the crank scraper would get loaded up with oil and it was being forced up the dip stick tube.
So I changed the oil and put less in and everything seems good.
Thanks Lonnie!!!


Chris

 

[KevinB]

Good to hear! Just curious, where does oil level come up to now on the dip stick?

 

[Chrisk]

Lonnie Said it should just touch the "X" marks on the stick. 6 quarts got me a hair above.

 

[JimP]

Just a thought, but did you maybe overfill the crankcase? Was helping a friend with a similar issue on a non turbo car. He had about 1.5 quarts too much oil in there because of a new after market dipstick.

Just a thought.

 

[turbofabricator]

After adding the appropriate amount of oil, start cutting away at the dipstick tube with a tubing cutter. Make sure you fill to the desired amount, (5 qts is enough for most engines) then start the engine and let it fill all the passages and filter, then shut it off and adjust the dipstick tube length.

As a side note, if you have a deep pan and a girdle, you don't NEED to add more oil. There is no real advantage to having more oil in the pan. (unless, of course, the car uses alot of oil ), but there IS an advantage to having the oil far away from the spinning crankshaft.
Something else to note here, is that the RJC pick-up extension for a girdle and deep pan is no where near deep enough for a stock pick-up to reach the bottom of the pan. I just built a new pick-up today for a stroker 4.1 StageI with a RJC girdle and RJC deep pan. The aluminum adaptor placed the pick-up nearly an inch off the bottom of the pan. I ended up placing the pick-up .275" off the bottom. If the pick up is more than 3/8" off the bottom, it can cavitate under hard acceleration/braking causing a serious problem. In that case, it would be a good idea to add 7 qts of oil to the pan.