Hi all,

I took the 914 out for it's first autox this weekend, and what blast! After several hard runs, I popped open the engine lid and was poking around a bit. It looked like a bit of oil had sprayed around the engine bay.

Just so y'all know, I have a 74 2.0L with fuel injection. All of the vacuum hoses are hooked up correctly with new hoses and a new PCV valve.

Upon closer inspection, it looked like there was a bit of oil leaking around the rubber seal that connects the air cleaner box to the air intake manifold. It seems that somehow, a fair bit of oil is getting into the intake. I've noticed that the car has been kind of jerky on acceleration lately, and I suspect that the plugs are getting fouled with oil.

Also, after a fairly long highway trip last week, one of the head breather hoses popped off, and there seemed to be a fair bit of oil that sprayed out of the breather port. I'm thinking that the oil is being forced out of the breather ports and into the air box. Is that likely? I haven't pulled off any vacuum lines yet to see which ones have oil in them and which don't, but I plan to this weekend.

So, does anyone have thoughts on what could be happening? My oil consumption is kinda high, but it's not leaking very much. I think somehow it's getting blown into the intake and burned. What can I check? What can I do?

Thanks!

Compression check / leakdown test. Find out if you have a lot of blowby on the rings thus pressurizing the crankcase and forcing oil mist into the intake.

Ok, I did a compression test, and things don't seem too bad. I'm sitting between 115 and 125 on all cylinders. So, what next to check. I'm slightly stumped as to the cause of so much oil in the intake. Any other thoughts, suggestions, things to check???

Help please!

How high is the oil level?

I filled it just a touch over the top line for the autocross. So, I guess it was overfilled a bit, but not t oo bad. Could that be the cause?

yes. oil get's vented into the intake, that's nothing to be worried about. but, it sounds like your plenum might not seal correctly or has a crack (fairly common) ...

you might want to take it off and double-check. i have seen a few with hairline cracks, mostly around the mounting holes on the bottom ...

Andy

Thanks guys. Just curious, but how would a crack in the plenum cause oil to get in?

a compression test does not test the valve guides. only the valves, seats, and rings.

bad intake guides can suck oil in and gum plugs.
bad exhaust guides can let pressure past a guide and add pressure to the crankcase therefore causing excessive oil thru the EGR valve. (it can also pop off other hoses)

?your EGR tube look like it's got a lot of oil going through it to the intake?

no no, oil get's into the air-intake all the time. it's supposed to do that. your oilfiller neck vents into the air-cleaner. there's nothing wrong with that, really.

BUT, if it leaks out of your air-filter or plenum, you got a problem with a seal or a crack ...

Andy

Ok, it doesn't look like any oil is leaking out of the plenum, so I don't believe it's cracked or anything.

Is the EGR valve the same as the PCV valve (the one on the oil filler neck?) If so, there doesn't seem to be much oil in the hose, so I don't think it's getting in from there.

A couple of the plugs were kinda gummed up, so a bad intake guide is sounding possible. Crap.

Any other things I should check?

Thanks guys,