Hey all, I'm a new poster to the forum. I've been able to read some helpful threads(fixed HVAC blower switch with wire tie last winter), as well as some entertaining threads(dual carb V8 Metro running 10-sec 1/4 miles!!:runaround: )

Anyway, I'm looking for some direction. For the past 2 days, my 94 has been blowing smoke on the way in to work in the mornings. It happened one time about 4 weeks ago, where I noticed a slight loss of power (from 65mph to about 60mph). I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed in the headlights behind me that there was smoke coming out of the exhaust for about 4 seconds. No smell, no noises, no popping or puttering. The smoke stopped, power was back to normal, and I didn't see anything else.

When I got to work, I sat in the car and let it idle for about 30 mins, got out, looked all around, and there was nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't see it again until 2 days ago, and it's been happening every day around the same time/place on the highway. Today, I stayed at 55 mph in the slow lane, and it happened... 4 second burst, then a 2 second burst, power lag, then cleared up.

I had a few coworkers give it a brief look, and they said it seemed like moisture building up and exiting through the exhaust. They smelled some oil-like residue under the air filter, and said there was no oil or gas smell, and determined it to be water.

Anybody else experienced this? I'm sitting at about 149,750+ miles, and I've checked some threads about the valves going bad around this mileage. I will conduct the compression test as suggested in some threads, but I haven't seen any threads with similar symptoms to mine.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
TIA

Mike

take the top off the aircleaner and look inside for a small puddle of oil or oil coming out of the square tube while it is running

Hey Crvett69 (I have a 2001):grinyes:

If I find this puddle, what does that mean? How's it getting in there, and how do I stop it?

if you have oil in your air cleaner you need to replace the pcv valve and make sure hose to it is clear, if it still gets oil in air cleaner you engine is getting tired and might need to be rebuilt or replaced

Thanks! I'll try that and report back. :wink:

I'll guarantee you'll find oil in the air cleaner. Crvett is spot on.

-MechanicMatt

I doubt very much that your pcv valve is bad. The small drain hole in the head for the oil to drain back the the crankase has a battle going on at high rpms between the oil trying to drain down and the blowby from the crankase trying to come up. The oil losses at high rpms and builds up in the valve cover until it splashes into the pcv hose and the engine gulps a bit of oil. The cure is rebuild the motor, or spend $1 at the hardware store. Buy a piece of 1/2" air hose, about a foot long. Pull your dipstick out and store it in your car. ( don't lose it, you don't realize how important it is until you don't have it) Push one end of the hose over your dipstick tube. Secure the other end pointing down with a hose clamp or zip tie. Your done. Check your oil occasionally.

This is a bit off topic, but it's interesting in light of the advice to send the blow-by down the dip stick instead of into the air cleaner. Years ago I blew both the cam and crank seals on the engine as the breather on top of the valve case had become plugged with ice. I drove it home from the mountains in the cold part of December when this happened. I took it to a mechanic who said it was moisture from the gas which builds up in the valve case. I'm not so sure that I would want to send moisture into my oil pan in the winter. I like the idea of this mod for summer and for winter I still think that a catch can is more practical.

Just my two cents.

Jai

Quite an interesting topic here

brivers and carpenter_jai both brought up some great points and input.

One good tip here is to make sure all is clean, for the PCV system.
Take the PC valve out and thoroughly clean it with carb cleaner and flush out the hose at the same time. Air should freely pass through the PC valve, but it will only flow one way, if it's working correctly.

The hose that goes into it, should be completely free of oil and gunk as well.

Then make sure the area, in the valve cover, (that the PC valve hose connects too) is completly free of oil and gunk, too. In some auto manufacturers, there may be a mesh filter under that little steel plate in the valve cover. Over time, these load up with old oil and it turns gunky. After it turns gunky, then it gets hard. If air doesn't pass freely through this portion of the valve cover, then I would suggest removing the valve cover and filling it up with carburator chemdip over night and let it break that stuff down. By morning, you'll be able to rinse it out with hot water and put it back to use. Blow the water out with an air nozzle and you'll be good to go in a few minutes.

Use good gasket sealer, on both sides of the rubber gasket when assembling, to protect from bad oil leaks. The pan gasket and the valve cover gasket are really important things to keep up here. Those two seem to loose most of your oil.:smokin:

Spent the weekend under the hood cleaning up the air cleaner, replacing the pcv valve(twice :uhoh: ), replaced the spark plugs(found the 2nd plug loose when looking for oil)...

At speed, oil still spews up into the air cleaner and out the exhaust :banghead: . From further reading via searches on this and the teamswift forum, it seems like my next move should be a valve/ring job.

Anymore advice or tips before I commit to this? Something I am curious about is the comment by brivers about the 1/2 inch air hose on the dipstick receptacle. How does this work?

Thanks.