This can't be right - excessive blow-by?

Dan88t

Dan88t

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Jun 12, 2007
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So I just got back from a spirited drive, a couple runs 0-140, lots of messin about and while I let the car cool I opened the hood to look around and found this big puddle of oil under my air filter (obviously my air filter is soaked with oil now too)... Luckily I'm running a Maft-Pro so it didn't fill up my AFM or anything... But this can't be normal right? What could cause this?
I'm pulling the engine this weekend for a rebuild anyway so it's not a big deal but seriously, wtf?.... Thanks!
p1880630_1.jpg
 
Dan88t

Dan88t

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No intentional PCV system mods... My intent was to have everything hooked up like stock but the first thing I thought of when I saw that puddle tonight was that I screwed something up. I did notice a couple of times in the past week or so, oil coming out of the blow-off valve. That could have always been happening tho since it was recirculated until I went MAFTP a few weeks ago...
It's just that it's not that complicated - TB -> Cam Covers -> Accordion Pipe...
p1880638_1.jpg

(^embarrassing pic - it's a mess right now but half my reason for pulling/rebuilding over the next couple weeks is to clean it up and paint the engine bay etc..)
 
Dan88t

Dan88t

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Actually, yeah, a couple of times I've found the stick popped up and oil coming out of the dipstick hole, I replaced the o-ring but that didn't fix it.
What could that mean?
 
Dan88t

Dan88t

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Dang! I was hoping you'd say "totally normal, that means your engine is extra powerful!" :)

That sucks, I was hoping to do the engine refresh over the next two weeks without having to do rings - current (OEM) pistons and rings only have about 26,000 miles on them and the cylinders were honed at the machine shop when they surfaced the deck...

Thanks for the help IJ! I'll come back and update this thread once I get the engine tore down next week

My goal for this engine "refresh" was to avoid machine shops all together, a possible broken ring-land worries me... :(
 
Dan88t

Dan88t

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Well since I did say I'd come back with an update here I am. Thankfully the pistons/rings/cylinders all look really good, no damage and there was no oil on top of the pistons when I removed the head...
The only problem I might have found is that the hose going from the cam cover to the block had been "temporarily" replaced long ago with a hose that apparently wasn't oil safe (oops). It had gotten soft and kinked and I believe it was completely collapsed so the only thing I can think of is that maybe that was allowing pressure to build up and blowing out through the pcv system?

A buddy of mine who fancies himself a genius mechanic insists that it's bad oil seals in the turbo but the oil is in front of the turbo in the intake/air filter so that doesn't make sense to me unless the turbo were spinning in the wrong direction right? My intercooler/pipes don't have much oil in them (compared to when I did have a turbo with bad seals) and the turbo (stock CT-26) has really low miles and almost zero shaft play...

Who knows - I guess it'll be a mystery unless I get the whole thing back together and have the same issue, then I quit :)
 
Poodles

Poodles

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Jul 22, 2006
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Could be the vent hose, doubtful to be the turbo since if it's leaking on the compressor side it would fill the intercooler pipes and intercooler, not come out the air filter.
 
SideWinderGX

SideWinderGX

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Not like it matters much (IJ has a weeee bit more experience ;)) but +1 to what he's thinking, what you're going through is exactly why I have a spare engine getting built and I'm pulling the engine whenever I get to it.

I had a basketball sized puddle of oil underneath the fan on the ground, plus oil all over the engine bay one night...leaking out the air filter like a siv. No shaft play on turbo, no noticeable difference in power, but smoke would puff out the dipstick and out the PCV lines like someone smoking a cigar. Happened pretty suddenly too :( 200k+ miles on the engine, can't say I was surprised.
 
Dan88t

Dan88t

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Yep, you did! And I was right on when I said that there were no intentional PCV mods :)

I'd already planned on tearing the engine down anyway, and it's a good thing I did, my crankshaft thrustwasher was all smashed to hell and I had over 2mm of thrust in the crank... I blame the poorer-version of myself from a few years back when I built the engine for buying crap parts... oh well, live and learn!
 
Dan88t

Dan88t

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I haven't checked the gaps yet because I haven't wanted to pull the rings off the pistons yet. The pistons/rings are 1.00mm oversized NPRs and so far I haven't been able to find a source for that size ring for OEM style pistons. (Except for ones from some company called DNJ that are sold thru RockAuto, I have another thread on here asking if anyone knows of a source, probably better off buying the cheapo rings than re-using the old rings tho...)
So I'm taking Thurs off work to fiddle with my engine, I think I'll dig out the ol' piston ring tool and check those gaps since I feel kinda dumb for not having done it already :)
 
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