Oil spraying out of filler cap, head being pressurized under boost???
Jun 26, 2011, 06:10 PM
#1
Oil spraying out of filler cap, head being pressurized under boost???
Hey guys, I haven't been on here in quite a while and I've been traveling a lot lately for work. I had a problem that's been bugging me for a little while now that started back in December, and I ended parking the car until the work trip I'm on now where I needed to drive the car to where I'm currently at.
Here's the scoop:
Back in late December we had a really cold snap, and one particular morning I went to start the car to warm it up (it was -19 outside) and drove it after about 10 minutes to go meet my van pool for work. For some reason for the first time ever oil was spraying from everywhere. There was a huge cloud of oil smoke that trailed behind me, and I figured I broked something pretty badly. I parked the car and left it until it warmed up.
Fast forward to March, I found that oil was spraying out from my oil filler cap under boost but was fine as long as you stayed in vacuum. I no longer had the cloud of smoke, and in fact it didn't burn any oil at all, which I though was odd but chalked it up to perhaps oil pressure blowing past the seal on my Holset turbo.
Now at present day, I needed to drive the car to where I'm currently working. I decided to bend the tabs a little bit on my filler cap to tighten the seal, and it worked pretty well. I only get a very fine mist of oil coming from it now. However my vented catch can coming off the port on the head is filling up with oil that's blowing out of the head and my breather filter is soaked in oil. Back in March I tried to do a real quick compression test with a questionable tester just to see what it would say (I ended up getting 100, 90, 40, 30) but the engine was stone cold and all charge pipes were still on (and the car had been sitting for some time). I figured the compression readings were false as the car starts right up, idles perfectly fine, and still pulls extremely hard at 32psi out of my Holset. The only "motor work" really was a set of small HKS 272's that I installed years ago. Other than that the motor is completely stock and made 535awhp on a dynojet and currently has 105,000 miles on it and a speed density conversion I did a while back.
I did a few searches on here to find if anyone else has any issues with this and what their results were, but I didn't see anything quite like this. I've never had the dipstick pop out once under full boost, and it's never leaked an oil and I don't have a spring on it holding it down. I replaced the PCV valve with an oem piece back in March and it seemed to help...for about 4 hours lol. I would probably say the crappy compression results are out just due to how the car runs, and until I return home I can't really try and re-test it with a different tester to make sure. I can see the rings starting to wear out, but not to the degree the tester says. Also since the dipstick isn't popping out I'd tend to assume more towards the head being pressurized more than the crank case, but would disconnecting the pcv from the intake have any positive effect or just make things worse?
Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance and I appreciate any help or ideas I can get at this point.
Here's the scoop:
Back in late December we had a really cold snap, and one particular morning I went to start the car to warm it up (it was -19 outside) and drove it after about 10 minutes to go meet my van pool for work. For some reason for the first time ever oil was spraying from everywhere. There was a huge cloud of oil smoke that trailed behind me, and I figured I broked something pretty badly. I parked the car and left it until it warmed up.
Fast forward to March, I found that oil was spraying out from my oil filler cap under boost but was fine as long as you stayed in vacuum. I no longer had the cloud of smoke, and in fact it didn't burn any oil at all, which I though was odd but chalked it up to perhaps oil pressure blowing past the seal on my Holset turbo.
Now at present day, I needed to drive the car to where I'm currently working. I decided to bend the tabs a little bit on my filler cap to tighten the seal, and it worked pretty well. I only get a very fine mist of oil coming from it now. However my vented catch can coming off the port on the head is filling up with oil that's blowing out of the head and my breather filter is soaked in oil. Back in March I tried to do a real quick compression test with a questionable tester just to see what it would say (I ended up getting 100, 90, 40, 30) but the engine was stone cold and all charge pipes were still on (and the car had been sitting for some time). I figured the compression readings were false as the car starts right up, idles perfectly fine, and still pulls extremely hard at 32psi out of my Holset. The only "motor work" really was a set of small HKS 272's that I installed years ago. Other than that the motor is completely stock and made 535awhp on a dynojet and currently has 105,000 miles on it and a speed density conversion I did a while back.
I did a few searches on here to find if anyone else has any issues with this and what their results were, but I didn't see anything quite like this. I've never had the dipstick pop out once under full boost, and it's never leaked an oil and I don't have a spring on it holding it down. I replaced the PCV valve with an oem piece back in March and it seemed to help...for about 4 hours lol. I would probably say the crappy compression results are out just due to how the car runs, and until I return home I can't really try and re-test it with a different tester to make sure. I can see the rings starting to wear out, but not to the degree the tester says. Also since the dipstick isn't popping out I'd tend to assume more towards the head being pressurized more than the crank case, but would disconnecting the pcv from the intake have any positive effect or just make things worse?
Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance and I appreciate any help or ideas I can get at this point.
Jun 26, 2011, 08:23 PM
#4
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Make sure your PVC valve is not clogged , that could pressurize crank case i believe.
related topic.
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...cap-video.html
Athanasios
related topic.
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...cap-video.html
Athanasios
Jun 26, 2011, 09:26 PM
#6
Evolved Member
The head and crankcase are all one connected cavity. So, whatever pressure is in the crankcase the same is in the head.
Check the PCV valve. It should be open if you blow through in one direction but not allow air through in the reverse direction.
Next, remove the vent line at the valve cover and determine that you can blow freely through it.
If all of the above checks okay I'd suggest you have excessive blowby.
Check the PCV valve. It should be open if you blow through in one direction but not allow air through in the reverse direction.
Next, remove the vent line at the valve cover and determine that you can blow freely through it.
If all of the above checks okay I'd suggest you have excessive blowby.
Jul 3, 2011, 08:20 PM
#7
Today I had some free time so I decided to warm the engine up and recheck compression. The results aren't good...80, 80, 80, 30.
Normally I would've said excessively worn rings with excessive blow-by, but the puzzling part is there is no burning oil, no oil build-up on the exhaust wheel of the turbo, and no oil consumption at all during the normal 3,000 mile interval. That's usually one of the key signs right there.
I decided to pressurize the cylinder for a leak test and see what I got. When coming up to top dead center on #4 ( the really low one) I could tell the valves were sealing properly and once they closed, the oil cap started dancing around as air started coming out of the motor. That ruled out any possibility of valves.
I had previously thought about the head gasket though since I still run the stock head gasket and stock head bolts. I know I should've changed them by now but never really got around to it, and I know the motor is making over 500 hp after running dead even with my friend's 516whp mustang dyno'd Evo 8 (and with tephra's dyno program saying 535whp lol). Is there a good possibilty that the head gasket lifted somewhere where it would pressurize the crank case and not effect any coolant passages? I don't have any coolant/oil mixing, and the coolant doesn't seem to be effected pressure-wise.
I'm honestly a little stumped, like I said I thought it was rings but the car doesn't smoke one bit, doesn't burn one bit, nothing.
Normally I would've said excessively worn rings with excessive blow-by, but the puzzling part is there is no burning oil, no oil build-up on the exhaust wheel of the turbo, and no oil consumption at all during the normal 3,000 mile interval. That's usually one of the key signs right there.
I decided to pressurize the cylinder for a leak test and see what I got. When coming up to top dead center on #4 ( the really low one) I could tell the valves were sealing properly and once they closed, the oil cap started dancing around as air started coming out of the motor. That ruled out any possibility of valves.
I had previously thought about the head gasket though since I still run the stock head gasket and stock head bolts. I know I should've changed them by now but never really got around to it, and I know the motor is making over 500 hp after running dead even with my friend's 516whp mustang dyno'd Evo 8 (and with tephra's dyno program saying 535whp lol). Is there a good possibilty that the head gasket lifted somewhere where it would pressurize the crank case and not effect any coolant passages? I don't have any coolant/oil mixing, and the coolant doesn't seem to be effected pressure-wise.
I'm honestly a little stumped, like I said I thought it was rings but the car doesn't smoke one bit, doesn't burn one bit, nothing.
Last edited by Slo_crx1; Jul 3, 2011 at 08:24 PM.
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Jul 3, 2011, 08:58 PM
#8
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Im having a similar Issue except my cooling system is being pressurize. I think at your power level its very possible that the head is lifting. I would try installing some ARP head studs and see what happens.
Jul 5, 2011, 03:34 PM
#9
If your coolant is being pressurized then your head is definitely lifting.
It would just suck to go through all the work of changing the head gasket to find out that it really wasn't the problem lol. And since I pretty much fabricated my turbo setup, it's like taking a jigsaw puzzle apart. It's pretty bad when the local "race shop" takes one look at the setup, scratches their head, and says no thanks lol.
It would just suck to go through all the work of changing the head gasket to find out that it really wasn't the problem lol. And since I pretty much fabricated my turbo setup, it's like taking a jigsaw puzzle apart. It's pretty bad when the local "race shop" takes one look at the setup, scratches their head, and says no thanks lol.
Jul 6, 2011, 02:38 AM
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As bad as the compression test went and just turning it over makes the oil cap "dance" I doubt its the PCV system since plenty of oil is getting to the catch can. Then theres the no coolant in the oil so I doubt its the head gasket. It sounds like scored up cylinder walls or broken rings. That blows.
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