White Steam/Smoke out breather and oil cap

[Sixxshot87]

Has anyone ever seen steam and/or white smoke come out valve covers due to condensation in the engine from a pcv system being replaced with a filter and condensation getting into the engine. The "steam" happens imediatly even when the engine is cold started and coolant temp is only 90 degrees but is only visible when you rev up the engine.The reason i say steam is the "steam" does not linger around like smoke and it happens like i said when the engine is cold started. And on a side note it is humid enough around here to put condensation behind my headlight lenses.It Comes out the pcv hole that the filter is on and oil fill hole when i take the cap off. Coolant is green as new and oil is not milky and appears just changed.Elaborate....

 

[Sixxshot87]

update, i pulled the both the driver and passenger side plugs and the passenger side plug closest to the front of the car and all are fouled black with the drivers side middle having the worst deposits even though the plugs are less than 250 miles old. Is it possible that the PCV valve is plugged causing oil to blow by and foul the plugs and also the wierd vapor i see that happens instantly when the car runs? i didnt check the other 3 because i didnt have time to get to them but i will look tommarow morning.

 

[TurboBuRick]

Sounds like the rings are shot. Is this a stock unopened motor?

 

[Sixxshot87]

the short block is unopened the top end had a roller cam and lifters put in about 250 miles ago. I was told all was good with the condition of the short block when the heads were off for a head gasket job.

 

[87buickracer]

the short block is unopened the top end had a roller cam and lifters put in about 250 miles ago. I was told all was good with the condition of the short block when the heads were off for a head gasket job.

A few places to check---

check compression on cylinders..Head gasket could be leaking some or
rings could be bad..
check for vacuum leak around intake gasket and other sources
replace pcv valve
check turbo seals and intercooler for signs of oil leak from turbo
check egr valve function(test)

 

[Sixxshot87]

makes sense that it could be the PCV valve seeing as there is sludgy oil in it when I take the vacuum hose off and the IAC is sticking and giving numerically high readings (above 110 and as high as 140at or right above idle). As an FYI I will note that the car ran so well before this odd problem that it actually passed emissions with half the max limit and NO CATALYTIC CONVERTER. so what my point is is IMO if this is blow bye the emissions would be much more crappy and happening for a long time correct me if I'm wrong. I'll have a leak down test done tomorrow. And I will definitely pull the PCV valve and replace it with a new one and Clean the IAC out. Hopefully this is another one of those problems that seems bad at first but turns out to be some thing small and forces me to learn more about how my Buick operates so I can prevent and/or fix anything that might come my way in the future.

 

[RegalT-type85]

I had this same problem, my breather was soaked with oil. Crankcase pressure build up to much and fould all my plugs. I fixed the problem by putting back a breather (mr gasket) with an outlet that ran to the intake. After new PCV and Plugs I ran MMO (whole big bottle) it Fixed the problem.
So after learning not to go with the crowd, I won't ever use a open breather.I know some get away with using it with not problems tho. 50/50

 

[Pronto]

It Comes out the pcv hole that the filter is on and oil fill hole when i take the cap off. Coolant is green as new and oil is not milky and appears just changed.Elaborate....

The PCV valve is in the intake manifold and goes straight to the vacuum block on top of the throttle body. What filter are you talking about? Drivers side is vented, passenger side is vented rather than going in the turbo. PCV pulls out the manifold into the throttle body during vacuum. Put a good one-way valve in line so the block is not pressurized by the PCV line and add an oil catch can made from an inline filter for air compressors. If you got white smoke or vapors coming out a filter (vc venting cap?) then its not oil. Is your coolant level slowly dropping?

 

[Sixxshot87]

my idle air control is reading 140 on the scan master at pretty much any rpm i hold it at including what should be idle (it stalls if I let of the gas) and even after new plugs,PCV valve, and IAC valve the car still runs rough and stalls out. I did the IAC rest on gnttype.org and still nothing. another thing i find odd is if i crank the car with no foot on the gas it will not start but if I hold the gas down about 40% or higher it will start even though it runs like crap, I cannot let off though or it will stall.

 

[Sixxshot87]

I was wrong when I said PCV hole (i was real tired). The hole is where the valve cover had a tube going to the intake which I now have a breather filter on and that is where the "steam" is coming from. IAC counts according to the scan master both before AND after the IAC reset procedure still read 140 even with a new valve.

 

[TurboBuRick]

Are you still puffing out the valve cover breathers?

At this point, I would do a compression check.

Possibly some busted rings or a blown head gasket.

 

[Sixxshot87]

has to be a head gasket. The person I told to hold there hand over the oil filler cap hole when I crank to feel if "wind" is coming out said there was not wind coming out and I decided to double check today and there is a solid white puff puff puff coming out in sync with the cylinders. I just refused to believe that this is a head gasket since there were no more than 250miles on the engine since the last head gasket change. Oh well tough **** for me I guess.

 

[TurboBuRick]

Ya that not cool. After the last hg blew, did you check your fuel system? Failing fuel pumps can blow hg's real quick. :tongue:

 

[Sixxshot87]

pump was new walbro 340. I was not the one who drove the car when the **** hit the fan my dad was and he swore to me he did not mash the gas. I dont know about you guys but I have never heard of new clean injectors (that were just flow tested and cleaned today btw) new pump and head gaskets being on a car and head gaskets blowing that soon. I mean i still need to get a compression test but I dont thing I can bull**** myself much longer. If it walks and barks like a dog its probably a dog.

 

[Pronto]

Make sure the fuel regulator and boost control is working correctly too. Something is causing it to detonate enough to pop the gaskets.

 

[RegalT-type85]

I think you have a pressuerized block, I thought the same thing about my gaskets,rings. Before anything major i would run to autoparts store, buy a valve cover breather V8 style with a outlet. Try mr gaskets breathers, run a hose from that to your intake. They sell adaptor kit or buy the section intake, spectre brand, it will be ready to plug anyting in. Install that, get a bottle of MMO to clean up all the crap in your internals, use in oil and gas. Let it idle for good 20mins or whenever black smoke goes away.
Hope you luck out and it ends up that simply to fix.

 

[Sixxshot87]

wont idle long enough for me do suck in any MMO but Ill have the shop do it assuming it passes a compression test

 

[Pronto]

Did you resolve the issue why you blew the head gaskets the first time? Maybe you didn't really fix that issue and just had the same issue happen again...

 

[Sixxshot87]

Update: what happened was my dad drove my car when I told him not to multiple times (of course) and was not paying attention to the gauges. The temp sensor wire disconnected from the electric fan controllers and failed to trigger either of my fans (there is a double spal setup). The engine overheated to the point where it detonated and melted the #3 and seized ALL valves to ALL guides and was actually moving the guides up and down in the heads.I was luckey though because there was no damage too serious to repair. The cam,rods,crank,push rods, heads, had zero damage and the block was scraped in the #3 which a .20 over bore solved. However the valve springs got so hot they were blue and all exhaust valves were replaced as insurance that they would not separate in two from severe heat. At this point it is just a big joke around the house and hey, dad agreed that if he breaks he pays so TY dad for new pistons and balance and blue printing. I just wish he didn't have to learn the hard way.