Oil leakage

[J-T-]

I have a 84 GP with the 231 (75,800 miles) and I have a question that I can't seem to find on here...

I noticed today that there is oil in the air cleaner assembly. Someone told me that I should check the vaccum hose that goes to the intake manifold to see if it's collapsed...
There is also oil leaking towards the back of the engine. I figured that's from the hose... But I can't locate it...

The PCV valve is brand new but it doesn't sit very well... I would go and mess around with it some more but I ran out of daylight... :x

 

[kustomkyle]

My car with a 307 Olds had yellowish oil sludge in the air cleaner last winter. I've heard it is because of blow-by which in turn is caused by rings that are not functioning properly. The sludge came up through the PCV valve and clogged it up. It makes sense with my car because the engine is worn out, but my car only has 89,000 miles.

I don't know if this is what is happening with your car or not. Just a suggestion of what I read somewhere and how it related to my car.

 

[dan2286]

Try a cylinder leak down test.

 

[phaZe]

If the PCV valve isn't "sitting well", it could have a big enough gap to spray the oil out. It could also be leaking elsewhere and the air when you are driving is causing it to be flung up to the air cleaner.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

A little oil in the air filter housing is somewhat normal on these cars due to age and system design. However, a lot of oil is a sign of bad rings. Basically, a little film is OK, puddles are not. I would try a new PCV valve grommet first as it is cheap and it sounds like you need it anyways.

My experience with these older cars is that they always end up with a bit of oil in there, but newer cars tend not to have this issue. It may be the design of the baffles in newer engines that keeps it from being an issue as many modern engines have essentially a double layer valve cover that isolates the breather or PCV hose much better than older cars. My 304,000 mile Nissan, for example, has the breather baffle the full length of the valve cover, and an oil separator for the PCV valve. It has no signs of oil in the air cleaner housing. The 40,000 mile 350 Chevy in my Cutlass has just a small baffle that fits between the rockers, and it is far less effective at keeping oil out. Both engines have good compression and no blowby, but one has a better design.

 

[BrownGP83]

Ihave seen this several times and it was always bad rings. most of the cars had 80,000 to 150,000 miles on them but i don't know how long they had the problem. It was mainly 231 V6 cars too. Idont know if that was a common problem with the V6 or not as I have never owned one myself[all my GPs were 305 cars to begin with, one did have this problem] A compression test should help you figure it out.

 

[pontiacgp]

your first post about these issues was about a week ago....how much oil is there in the air cleaner assembly now?...and for the oil leak at the rear of the engine it may be your oil pressure sender if it's mounted in that location, it's to the left (driver's side) of the distributor....it could also be the fail safe sender that's mounted in the same location that kills the engine if the oil pressure drops....I had a sender that had a broken diaphragm that was pissing out oil....or if you have adjusted your distributor recently check the base of the distributor to see if the base seal is leaking...

 

[jatguit]

Leaks down the back of the engine in a v-6 are usually the valve cover gaskets. I have had several 231 v-6 cars and this was always the case with mine.
I just did the valve cover gaskets in my v-6 cutlass this spring. If you decide to do them, then make sure you clean surfaces of old gasket and don't over torque the bolts.
Do a search on this site and there are some good suggestions on how best to do them so they don't leak.