I finally just got everything going again and actually drove to work today. I went for a nice ride and noticed the smell of burning oil so pulled over and found oil all over the top of the tin on passenger side around the vent and base of intake manifolds. It is also misfiring pretty bad on that side. Could it be coming from the vent itself? Where else could that be coming from?

Possible valve cover gasket... You'd be surprised.

Oil pressure sending units tend to leak. How about a pic?

How much lower is the oil level? Any on the ground?

After talking to a vw buddy he seemed to think it puked from somewhere due to running high rpm and cornering with too thick of oil and with engine not warmed up properly. It is true that I didnt warm it up too much before going for a good drive. I actually barely get the temp needle up at all these days with the weather cool like it is. I am running 20-50 vr1 oil at the moment but he said he goes to 10-40 this time of year in his bug. I also dont have properly working flaps so they just run in the failed open position. I guess it just oiled over and puked maybe from the breather? I cleaned it up and drove it easy on the way home and no more oil showed up. I didnt realize that oil pressure could do that so bad but he said v8s can actually blow off valve covers.

I am still having some bad misfiring but I think that is just me needing to sync carbs and check timing again. As far as oil level goes, it wasnt even a 1/4 of a qtr low.

10w 30 up here in the winter, or let it idle for 20 minutes

Clean up all the oil, start it up and take a look and see if you can tell where it's leaking.

Went thru that with my oldest son in Montana.
Came up with a good rule of thumb. Never over 3k until you see the temp needle move.
Never had a problem after that.
But with that being said. I am going to add an oil catch can to that 1.7 when I finish up the rustoration.

Dang I had no idea they were that temperamental! That is a great rule of thumb too!

I guess its time to change oil again and go back to 10-40 as well. I would love to fix the thermostat and flaps one day but that (along with a few other things) is on the back burner at the moment while I just enjoy driving it again for a while

I am still having this problem but still cant tell where it is coming from when it happens. It must be the case vent on that side of the motor or I have a crack in the case itself. There is no oil making it to the bottom side of motor.

I am a bit confused how the vents are supposed to be set up on this thing. I am wondering if things are not right causing this problem. The way I currently have things set up is with a bugpack box mounted to the rear wall of the engine compartment below the latch for the lid. I have both vents and vent on oil filler neck going up to the bugpack. I was looking into other setups and people were mentioning pcv valves but that seems to be for d-jet systems. I am running dual carbs and saw others referencing the breather box causing lean conditions and having to adjust the carbs for breathers etc. I thought it was just a bleed for crankcase pressure and oil that made it up to the bugpack then ran back down. Is mine maybe mounted too high? Should I put in a pcv valve with dual carbs? Can someone explain this to me please?

Have you tried UV dye oil leak kits, it works really well (it works for water and fuel as well)

Off topic, I was in N.O. a few weekends ago, went saw the Muse parade, Mandiville and part of the big parade in Downtown on Saturday..drawing a blank on the name, it ends at the superdome?

We have a house over in Covington and stayed over on that side of the lake.

Muses runs about two blocks from my house. Next time you should definitely hit me up if you come this way. Do you come to Nola often? I havent really found any 914 guys around here. Closest is in Lafayette. A buddy works at a vw shop there.

Probably one of the case vents.

Not a carb guy, but I think the catch can should drain back to the oil filler. As for 3k rpm? The object is to get t to operating temp as quickly as possible. That's not going to happen under 3k.

Three possibilities on the oil leak. As stated already; oil pressure sender, head vent hose is off, or a valve cover is leaking.

Is the hose on the head vent tight? Does it have a hose clamp on it? I'd be looking there first. It's the most likely candidate for that much oil.

I was getting oil on top of my engine too back before my rebuild. It was shooting out of the breather box during high RPM decal, due to crankcase pressure. At least that is the theory. Wasn't obvious that it was the breather box until it shot on the firewall, was shooting on the engine shelf before that.

I guess I am posting to keep this thread alive. I had the same thing happen to me while autocrossing a couple of years ago, and could not find the source. My only conclusion was that is came out of the breather. It hasn't happened sense, but I am always looking for it to happen again; it actually spewed a lot of oil. I did however learn from the thread that is might be from the sensor. Mike

The breather box needs to be set up so that there is a drain path back to the engine. If you don't have this set up, the box will slowly fill with oil. And if it fills with oil (or even if it's filling up faster than draining) you can get it to slosh out under hard cornering.

Do you have the foam in your breather box?

Makes a lot of sense McMark. I will give it a look. Thanks. Mike

Oil will come out the breather tower. The bail is often stretched and makes the gasket not quite thick enough. I believe 914rubber makes a thicker gasket that compensates for that. I usually silicone the gasket to the box, kinda how I silicone head cover gaskets to the head covers (silicone 1 side of cork gaskets). Possibly that keeps it from compressing as I haven't had any problems since doing this.

I remove the breather box, and I think your wright about the gasket not being thick enough; as a matter of fact it might be the original as well. I think this was the source of oil leaking on my engine. Does the box on the breather suppose to have a an element, mine doesn't have one. Thanks Mike

I put a stainless steel pot scrubber under the oil filler box/vent in the breather tower. It does a great job separating the oil and air. Only water vapor makes it out of the vent hose, with a small amount of oil. My catch can does fill with water, but it is the winter and it is the PNW......

If your venting straight to atmosphere or the engine compartment try adding one, and see if it works, but remember to REMOVE the pot scrubber when it comes time to do your oil change...... yeah....

I have a newly rebuilt 2056 that does not blow any oil out through the breather system.
It has a catch can hooked to the stock breather box and never find any oil worth draining in it.
I dont even route the blowby back to the engine, I just let it vent into the engine bay.
also no head vents.

So one thing that may be happening: Your engine is just too tired and you are getting excessive blowby causing the crankcase to have too much pressure.

You could do a compression & leakdown test to see if your rings are just toast.

I have seen tired engines have so much crankcase pressure that it blows the dipstick out under high RPM.

I believe the engine that I have that I've seen oil on top of, it is a factory "replacement" engine which might or might not have a windage tray. It seems like it doesn't by the oil oil pressure it gets around freeway entrances running 10w40 cold mornings. It will do it after a sort of abrupt turn off even after driving for like 12 quick miles; seems like it should be fairly warmed up at that point, but still sometimes I'll get low oil pressure light.