94 Altima PCV & Intake Problems

Alright, I own a 94 Altima. My PCV Valve got clogged up. It in return ended up clogging up my intake ports (what the one shop said) & than bypassed in to my distributor, got it oil covered, than soaked my dist. rotor. The shop replaced the rotor & cleaned the distributor & drilled a whole in the dist. cap to get me by temporarily. I'm wanting to fix it all the way now. The shop that looked it wants $300 to pull apart the intake, clean it all up, replace the PCV Valve & clean the PCV System & replace the dist. cap, which they said will take care of it. Another shop says that don't need to be done and only replacing the cap, pcv valve & running an injector flush (they want $100) will take care of the problem. My dad says the ports can't be clogged since the car runs & therefore all I need to do is replace the pcv valve & dist cap, as the gas will clean out my intake ports. A shade tree mechanic I know said that the pcv valve & dist cap needs to be replaced, pcv system cleaned, intake pulled apart & cleaned, & than pull the oil pan & clean it all up, in order to clean out all the crap that falls in to it, to keep it from getting pulled back up in the motor. My question is, since I'm being told by 4 different to do 4 different things, what should I do. I don't want to spend money just to put it back in the shop several months down the road because its having problems again. If I'm going to have it fixed, I want it done right, the first time. Someone please help me, for I can get the car fixed. If I can't get it fixed, than I'll trade it in, but really don't want to do that as I like the car & would rather just fix it. So someone, PLEASE HELP! I would fix it myself, but am unable to do to declining health & don't want to waste money doing something that doesn't need to be done, or by having to fix it several times.

So here is the fifth idea you are looking for.

1) Don't wash the injectors, they arent dirty.

2) Every engine w/ oil in the distributor should have the PCV system cleaned. Most if not all oil in distributors is caused by excessive crankcase pressure due to PCV restriction that will push oil past a new or used o-ring that seals the distributor shaft to the distributor housing.

3) The PCV valve isn't like the type that push into a rubber grommet and have a hose that pushes on. The PCV components are attatched inconvieniently below the intake manafold and above the oil filter.

4) It is not nessasary to remove the intake manifold to clean the PCV components and replace the hose that connects to the bottom side of the intake manifold.

5) It is important that all sludge and dirt are cleaned from the small port that connects the PCV hose to the intake manifold as well as any other passage in the PCV system.

6) There won't be any crap falling into the oil pan.

7) Anti-freeze from coolant that mixes with motor oil due to a leaking head gasket, cracked head, or block, will cause a sludge problem throughout any engine beginning with the smaller PCV passages. Can you see sludge building inside the engine when you remove the oil fill cap? Do you have to add coolant and don't know where the leak is?

No I do not have coolant leaking & I know I do not have a cracked head. The problem is with the PCV system. I can see you say no to the injector flush. So you recommend just having the PCV valve replaced & cleaning the PCV system?

Exactly. You have evaluated the condition of the engine. The PCV valve can be cleaned, inspected and reused also. Replacing the PCV valve is common practice and provides additional peace of mind because it just seams like the thing to do considering that plastic PCV valves like the ones used on other engines were cheap and not likley to survive cleaning.

JustSayGo, How hard is it to replace the PCV valve yourself? I checked in the haynes book and I don't know if I'm up for it:uhoh:

If you can raise the car high enough and support it safely so you can work from below, I don't think the job is too difficult. Poor conditions like working on dirt, difficulty with eyesight and trouble reaching may make the job more difficult than you care to take on.