I noticed smoke coming out from under my hood this morning so I pulled over and popped the hood. There is oil and smoke coming out my breather...even at idle. What is happening?

 

Do you have an aftermarket breather filter? If so get rid of it immediately-they do nothing but hurt your car.

 

Getting rid of the breather wont fix the problem. Its not the filter that cause the smoke. If the smoke is blue, you have a great chance of having a damaged piston or ring. I would perform a leakdown test or compression test ASAP.

 

uh oh. that's not good. are you running forced induction? if so...I hope I'm not haste in saying you need a rebuild.

 

why is the breather bad?
maybe there is too much oil in the car...

 

That is not a breather!!!! That is the blow-by hose. That hole doesn't suck in any air , eventually there's air coming out from it. You should have an oil catch can to pick up the waste oil cuz by the blow-by.

For the smoke, it is normally since the engine working temperature is high like boiling water.

 

that's the samething that happen to me, but in my case i bend four values and had a hole in my piston. Have the car checked out fully and don't redline.......

 

I did a compression test. Unfortunately im going to need a rebuild. Here is the breakdown.

1 cylinder - 230 psi
2 cylinder - 120 psi
3 cylinder - 120 psi
4 cylinder - 120 psi

So I have a blown headgasket, burnt or bent valves, or bad rings or ringlands. Im pulling the motor to see what happened. I was only running 5 lbs! My guess is the people that owned the car before me ran it hard. Oh well, I knew what I was getting myself into when I bought a turbo.

 

how did it feel before the turbo?

 

It felt ok...but I just found out the previous user ran nitrous so the car proabably was not in very good condition. It will be soon!

 

Why not you do a cylinder leak down test??? Identify the problem before you pull the engine a part.

 

AJPwR: You're incorrect with your statement about the breather. The nipple coming out the valve cover does NOT blow out. If it does, then your PCV system will work incorrectly. Ask yourself, what does PCV stand for?
Positive Crankcase Ventilation.
A slight amount of air coming in through the air intake tube is passed to the valve cover nipple. The air entering the valve cover basically pushes down toward the oil pan, forcing air into the black box on the back of the block. From there, the PCV valve picks it up and lets the air into the engine.

You're not supposed to put a catch can inline with the breather to the intake pipe. It serves no purpose. To properly install a catch can, (I'll use a B20-VTEC for example) you run a fitting from the back of the block to the side entrance on the catch can. Then put the grommet and PCV valve on the top hole in the catch can. You then run a hose from the PCV valve to the nipple in the intake manifold. Leave your factory hard line/breather hose intact. It serves its purpose well.

If you want, take it off, and grind it down to a 45 degree angle to help guide the air in. But the factory piece works just fine.


Sorry for the long post. I was just tired of people thinking the wrong things about breathers and catch cans and stuff...

 

mike,

i pulled the hose off the valve cover at 1200 miles and air does indeed flow out of there. not right away, but after a minute or so of idling.

my car now has about 6400 miles on it, and it runs fine. it makes sense to me...

 

That is correct. If you disconnect the hose from the valve cover you probably will have some outward airflow from the valve cover. But this is because you do not have equal air pressure coming from the intake tube which you disconnected. This is the reason for the tube which connects the intake to the valve cover and the reason that you should not remove the hose and replace it with a breather filter. This outward airflow is oil blow-by vapor, which you do not want coming through the valve cover. You want it to be recirculated through the breather chamber and then the PCV and then the intake manifold.

Here is a Honda diagram which illustrates what I have said. In the event you cannot see the picture, here is the link http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...nce=0&res=high which you will need to cut and paste to see the picture .






[Modified by BSQ, 9:38 AM 8/10/2001]