last night i discovered my car was leaking a bit of oil. it was to dark out to diagnose but i looked at it this morning and it appears that the inlet tube thats on the valve cover is pushing oil out. isnt that an inlet for air? i have mini cone filter thing from autozone. or am i an idiot? i spun it around and the oil is clearly coming from that. what is causing the oil to push out through there?

Pretty common. Positive crankcase pressure builds up and pushes oil out of that little valve cover vent. I was sick of cleaning up the mess so I just bought an oil catch can to collect it all. If there is a lot of oil coming out of there, then you may have internal issues with the motor. I know when I burned up a few valves in cylinder four, that cylinder no longer held compression, and a ton of oil, gasoline, etc came through the vent and filled up my catch can really quickly. As long as you dont have a ton of stuff coming out all of the time, just get yourself a catch can and make sure it doesnt overflow.

yeah i had no leaks until last night. so i guess you could say its more than usual. how expensive is a valve job these days?

alright well upon more inspection. i pulled my spark plug wires to find that number 4 is nearly half way full of oil! so im assuming to start with the basic of valve cover gasket...then possibly head gasket? cracked head? the car is not overheating. and how do i start this. can i just pull the plug and let the oil run down into the cylinder? or do i need to vacuum it out somehow. and is my plug ruined now? any help is greatly appreciated. thanks.

start w/ valve cover gasket. Tighten to spec and in sequence. If still leaking, it's probably a valve seal. Most likely not a head gasket or cracked head. Try a compression test too.

If you want the oil gone from that cylinder, just pull the spark plug boot, let the oil go into the combustion chamber, clean the boot, reinstall, and start the car. It'll smoke first, but it'll burn the oil up. Try that after the valve cover method has been done.

THe oil coming from the breather is normal. Positive crankcase pressure. EIther a catch can, or a crankcase evap system. I prefer the crankcase evap system. That's what i run. report back when you did something

Are you turbo'ed?

As for the VC gasket, pull the plug wires, use a paper towel to soak up as much as you can.

Here's a writeup/walkthru of the valve cover gasket replacment. Use this as your bible and there's no way you can mess this up.

http://www.2gnt.com/index.php?d=Replacing%20valve%20cover%20and%20spark%20plug%20gaskets

yes, the car is turbo.

i replaced the valve cover gasket and used a towel to soak up the excess oil in there. now that problem is solved. now, the other problem is that the tube right above cylinder 4 (the one that had all the oil in it) that we all put the mini cone on is pushing oil out thru that like i first mentioned. the car is constantly smoking. and the oil is building up on the top of the valve cover because of it.

is it possible that the spark plug and wires are shot and are causing some type of problem and thats the cause of the oil coming out of there? the wire was about half way soaked in oil. would the plug still be good?

i have msd wires and dont feel like paying another 80 bucks just to possibly see if this is the problem. (i know, you have to pay to play)what do you suggest?

another odd thing is that when i put my car back together after the vc gasket replacemet, my temp gauge stopped working the rest of the night. got in my car this morning, and magically, its back to normal.

Originally posted by Babbz413
now, the other problem is that the tube right above cylinder 4 (the one that had all the oil in it) that we all put the mini cone on is pushing oil out thru that like i first mentioned. the car is constantly smoking.

The oil leak is going to happen regardless of the condition of the spark plug and wire. It was already suggested that you get a catch can as being turbo'ed causes the positive crankcase case pressure to push the oil out of your cute little autozone breather filter.

Originally posted by Babbz413
is it possible that the spark plug and wires are shot and are causing some type of problem and thats the cause of the oil coming out of there?

Since you asked that question, I need to ask you one. How is it that you installed a turbo kit on a 420a and do not understand the principles of crankcase ventilation and ignition? Or did you buy the Eclipse the way it is?

i bought this car with the turbo setup already. and im well aware that oil would come out of there, but not to the point of which im leaving puddles everywhere i stop.

im going to get new valves seals i guess because it seems the boost is building up in the valve cover causing the oil to shoot out. the little cone actually bubbles up with oil and sprays out and when you let off the gas, the bubbles get sucked right back in.

does our head need to come off to get to those valve seals, or can we get to them without removal?

Originally posted by Babbz413
i bought this car with the turbo setup already. and im well aware that oil would come out of there, but not to the point of which im leaving puddles everywhere i stop. im going to get new valves seals i guess because it seems the boost is building up in the valve cover causing the oil to shoot out. the little cone actually bubbles up with oil and sprays out and when you let off the gas, the bubbles get sucked right back in. does our head need to come off to get to those valve seals, or can we get to them without removal?

Ok, I'm not saying this to be offensive, BUT...

STOP THINKING.

Start reading and learning. Multiple people have told you that the boost WILL ALWAYS create greater crankcase pressure than the PCV can handle and cause the oil to spew out that breather filter you have. It has nothing to do with valve stem seals. The sign of bad valve stem seals is smoking on startup and sudden deceleration from high rpms. They CAN NOT cause the issue you're having. Buy a cheap catchcan on ebay or someone here that's selling one and install it.

Please stop trying to "diagnose" issues without having any information or research to support your hunches. The first thing I do when I'm having an issue with my cars that I don't know the cause of is to make a list of the symptoms and then SEARCH my ass off to find potential causes and I test and check things over and over to narrow down the issue. ONLY THEN do I start on a repair. Throwing money and time at a car without proper diagnosis only lumps you in with the idiots that always wonder why they keep spending money on a car but it never works right.

On my boosted eclipse, I ran a hose from the breather line coming out of the valve cover to a gatorade bottle and stuck it between my battery and ecu with a wire tie. Tapped a little breather hole in the top of the bottle. Works just as good as a ebay catch can, and was practically free. But you really shouldn't be getting that much oil coming out. How much boost are you running?

I agree. Some oil coming out of there is normal, but if you are getting enough to "make puddles everywhere you stop" than that is a sign that something else is probably wrong internally. Get a compression test. My bet is one or more of your cylinders will not hold compression. The stock valves can only hold up to so much heat and abuse, after a while they degrade and you will lose seal. Once this happens, the positive crankcase pressure is more noticeable and more oil will come out of your breather system. I had the exact same thing happen to me after putting 25K miles on stock internals at 12psi, and that was when I decided to rebuild. Good luck!

thanks for all the help you guys. the heads coming off today.

all information was appreciated, thanks. i apologize for wasting anyones time.