I'm clueless as to why I keep spitting oil out the breathers

d0n_3d

Boost is good.
Joined
Jul 14, 2001
I keep having the problem of spitting oil out the breathers and it's getting worse...first it was just the driver side...now it's both of them and they both are SOAKED with oil...the driver side breather is caked with some white-ish looking stuff...at first I thought oh great headgasket but I drained the oil and it looks perfect...checked the coolant and it's green as could be...the car doesn't smoke at idle, cruise, or at WOT...I checked compression and have between 155-163 cold on all cylinders...made sure the pcv valve and check valve were working...the car runs awesome and idles awesome...it's just I can't figure this out...you can actually see both breathers smoking when the engine is running as well...oil spits out when I get on the boost and it drips onto the header and burns causing a nice smell inside the car...any ideas? I'm not convinced the rings are bad in the pistons because wouldn't I be losing compression? also wouldn't I be smoking oil or blowing blue smoke? car never smokes at all when I first start her up...I'm virtually clueless!
 
Probably worn oil rings. And yes, you can still have good compression. Could possibly be just one or two cyl.
 
This can be a sign of head gaskets blowing toward the intake valley also,Progressively getting worse. Happened to me a couple of times
 
valve covers are bone stock

man these headgaskets are only 3-4 months old and the car has barely seen any detonation...maybe I have been being stupid in running 25-27 psi of boost all the time...well if it's the rings then there's nothing I can do about that until I decide to rebuild the motor...would a leak-down test show me anything???
 
Originally posted by d0n_3d
valve covers are bone stock

man these headgaskets are only 3-4 months old and the car has barely seen any detonation...maybe I have been being stupid in running 25-27 psi of boost all the time...well if it's the rings then there's nothing I can do about that until I decide to rebuild the motor...would a leak-down test show me anything???

AT 25-27 psi all the time, i hope you run c16 all the time too.
By the sounds of it your burning your head gaskets.
Only takes one time when you detonate to hurt a head gasket.
 
yeah I run alky all the time...I never see detonation on this setup...that's why I am perplexed as to why it would be a headgasket??? I had the heads resurfaced and brand new gaskets put on several months ago and torqued everything down accordingly...maybe it is the rings?

i forgot to mention that this blow-by is so bad...that it's actually blowing my valve covers loose...i had to tighten the passenger side down quite a bit because i was leaking oil pretty decent...all the bolts were loose
 
Blowing the valve covers loose LOL Is this a prank call??
LOL :p sorry not laughing at you just with you. The bolts were loose because new valve cover gaskets compress a bit after initial tightening and usually require snugging back up.

Somehow your pressurizing the crap out of the crankcase wether it be pcv, which you checked, intake gaskets, headgaskets or rings thats basically the only ways the pressure is going to get there. And in yoru rare case your not burning any oil or antifreeze for some reason. Is it blowing the dipstick out of the tube any?
 
Good call on the intake gaskets BKS...That's sounds like a winner to me...Good compression, HG "seems" to be ok, pressure in the crankcase...Sounds like it could be a intake gasket indeed.
 
Well if you decide to pull the intake, pay attention to the head gaskets in the intake valley and make sure they dont appear to be pushing out.
 
Mine was similar but accompanied by a higher-than-normal idle. Turned out the OEM PCV "L" hose was loose and decomposing. This caused an excessive vacuum leak and rendered the PCV inoperable. Replaced the 11/32" hose and PCV valve.
I'm not sure what the whitish stuff on the breather could be unless its due to lack of thread sealer on a head bolt or two.
 
Hmm, my TTA has the same problem, oil comes out of the driver side breather and drips down on the header and smokes like crazy....its the only VC opening on a TTA. Its got only 14k original miles, so I know the rings aren't shot. IT does idle a little high for a few seconds when coming to a stop in "D"rive.
It also never sees more than 16# of boost.
*
I'll see if I can feel any vacuum by holding my hand over the VC opening and see if it changes any when I unplug the PCV line...and I do have a check valve in-line with it to keep boost out.
If I feel vacuum after unplugging it, I'll assume I have an intake gasket leak....

I too have no signs of coolant in oil or vice-versa and no excessive oil burn.
 
the driver side breather is caked with some white-ish looking stuff...

Can you be more specific? Is it a powder or snotish looking goo?
 
A simple way to check for a head gasket pushing into the lifter valley is to remove the pushrods ( from the #3 an #4 cylinders ) and look through the push rod slots in the head with a flash light. It's should be readily apparent if the gasket pushed out, not to mention graphite flakes in the oil. Brian
 
White stuff might be moisture from the alky if you using a mix? I know condensation in the block will look like that.
 
Originally posted by Pronto
White stuff might be moisture from the alky if you using a mix? I know condensation in the block will look like that.
The white stuff is a mixture of oil and condensation building up on the breathers. If the intake gaskets are leaking then the moisture is probably coming from the alky/water mix. Humidity will also cause it even on non-boosted cars.
I always put a thin film of silicon around all the intake and water ports on the gaskets to help prevent any leaks.

ks:cool:
 
have you changed the hg's lately? if you have did you re-use the same head bolts or new ones?you see I did this and found that the old bolts wouldn't seal properly, and yes compression was fine ,oil was good but would milk on the breather's.what was happening was water would go through and mix with oil .that would explain white stuff on breather caps, but not go into the pan.I bought new bolts and changed one at a time with heads on and no more white stuff.:D got lucky
 
well I use straight denatured alcohol with no water added...

the intake manifold gasket is a brand new felpro piece and yes i did use some black rtv around the water ports on both sides when i laid down the gasket...i just don't see how the intake manifold gasket would cause this...

one thing to note...i did drive the car in the rain yesterday when i noticed this...and the white-ish looking oil is indeed gooey looking almost like water and oil mixed like a blown headgasket...

yes i did use brand new ARP head bolts and yes i did use the white thread sealer on all the threads on every bolt when installing them...not sure if that's an issue...

thanks for all the replies guys...keep them coming...anybody else have any ideas???
 
Leak it down, post your results. I have seen a good compression test and a a bad leakdown test, so compression test doesn't show everything.

The head gasket issues Otto points out could be something too. I am hoping(not in a bad way) that you will see higher leakdowns in your affected areas.
 
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