steam coming out of oil filler hole

[suprana1990]

does anyone know why i see steam coming out of the oil filler hole?
i had this problem before i took my motor out and right now it is in the process of a rebuild.

my compression is good, steady thru all 6 cylinder at around 180psi.
i searched but can't find any info. and the only thing i heard about is excessive blowby.

what could cause excessive blowby?

 

[GrimJack]

Blowby is caused by dead or dying rings. Or cracked pistons, but I don't think that is very likely.

 

[lagged]

alright well steam as in water vapor.....well ill let you figure out for your self what that means.

 

[GrimJack]

Meh, I bet it's steam as in exhaust. If he really had a blown HG, his compression wouldn't be as even.

 

[CPT Furious]

Is it a little or a lot? If it is only a little, I would think it could be oil vapor as well from a hot engine. I've seen it on mine if I open it immediately after I've been running and my motor doesn't have any issues whatsoever. You just might be misleading people by calling it "steam".

 

[suprana1990]

probably, i am not sure what is the correct term to use.
all i know is after a 10mile drive or so and i open the oil cap i see like a load of vapor, steam or whatever you call it.

in SF i was it was excessive blowby, but i don't think my piston rings were bad cause i let the car idle for 10min. and then cool down for prob. 30min before i proceed to a compression test.

Lagged i don't think it is BHG, thank god cause i would be spending even more to fix my engine.

But thanks for all the input cause i always thought something was wrong when i open the oil cap and see like a steam or vapor coming out.

 

[siman]

It might be just the oil cooking off...

what brand oil and what weight do you use?

how many miles between changes?

-J.M.

 

[sathu]

I don't think it is steam, to call it steam is actually not correct, it's more like just vapor/light smoke. I have an oil catch can with a breather air filter on it and after a drive on the freeway, you can see vapor coming out of the filter if you open the hood up right after stopping. Although I seem to have a lot of oil depotsit on the tube from the valve cover into the oil catch can and I am loosing oil mostly dude to bad turbo oil seal. Getting it fix this weekend and hope that willl solve my oil problem.

 

[siman]

Well your motor does get hot......and I mean HOT.

Right after I drive to work or home and need to top off the oil a bit ( rear main seal still leaks) I open up the oil filler cap ( with a cloth its so hot) and oil vapor always comes billowing out. Nothing out of the ordinary, If I waft the smell over to me its just pure oil smell...
I got the wafting idea from my old chemistry class ROFL.

-Jonathan

 

[superbovine]

New cars do that too, its just vapors as said previously. Its normal.

 

[Boostedstr8six]

Yeah, even healthy motors will have a noticeable amount of blowby. Totally normal unless (engine running) it's really flowing out, and not just little puffs.