steam out of valve cover breather?

[buckn74]

Well i bought my first bronco a 1974, after owning several older mustangs.

But back to my question, after driving it for a few days i noticed oil leaks. So i went through and changed oil and filter, sparkplugs, fuel line and filter, bypass hose, vacuum lines, carb gasket, cleaned the carb, added a air filter, intake manifols, and tighted misc loose bolts.

Drove it out on the freeway and noticed smoke out the back. it was leaking oil out the dipstick base, so i took it apart and clened it up put oil resistant tape on it , tighted it down, added some sealant. leak was fixed. until i revved the motor then oil came out the top of the dipstick tube.

I made a few phone calls and internet searches and came up with i had to much crankcase pressure. bad pcv valve, plugged breather cap. worn piston rings.

PO didnt have a pcv valve, just 2 old plugged breather caps on the valve covers. so i put a new pcv valve on the pass side and ran it to the back of the the carb, no more oil leaks, but steam coming out the front drivers side valve cover opening. no oil, no smoke, just steam.? I put a kn style push in breather and same thing, it would get wet and steam would come out.

Why ? Same set up on my mustang and it doesnt do that. So i took the breather off my mustang and put it on the bronco, problem solved no more steam coming out. it was a domed metal style breather .

So now im stressed about the piston rings? So i pulled the plugs they were clean, Did a compression check. all cylinders were 150-160 lbs. so piston rings are fine. right?

the 302 runs great, idles about 800 rpms, oil pressure runs between 28 to 55psi, temp between 180-185, no oil leaks, no blue smoke or no sooty oil coming out the tail pipes,

But now alot of steam coming out the exhaust, even after its been warmed up an ran for awhile.

Is this normal?
what is causing this?
what is causing the extra cranckcase pressure?

sorry for the long question.

 

[Viperwolf1]

You probably have a bit of water in the crankcase from running without a pcv valve. Water is a byproduct of combustion. It will eventually get evaporated off and removed by the pcv valve or you could change the oil and get most of it out in one shot.

Keep your eye on the coolant level. If it drops you could have a bad intake gasket or head gasket that leaks into the crankcase.

 

[buckn74]

intake gaskets are new

The intake gaskets are new. Wouldnt a leaky head gasket cause the oil to turn white and frothy? The oil still looks good. I'll keep checking it.

 

[JMurray]

You wouldn't have good compression with a leaky head gasket, as said above, change oil & go from there.

 

[Viperwolf1]

Depends on how bad it's leaking.

 

[JMurray]

Yea I guess, they make a combustion tester to check the coolant. But I would put fresh oil just as a fresh refrence point. See what happens with the steam. The post says bad rings but with good compression. Guess I am not getting something. Is it a steam engine?.

 

[buckn74]

i checked

I checked the compression to rule out the rings. the compression was good so that means my rings are good. i will change the oil and filter and take it for a long test drive. thanks

 

[buckn74]

took it for the test drive

And it did great until i took it out on the highway again. Now oil is coming out the base of the dip stick again.

What is causing this????????????????

how do i fix this?????????????????

everything else looks good.

any ideas????????????

thanks

 

[DirtDonk]

I would double-check the effectiveness of the PCV valve you just put in there. If steam is coming out of the opposite valve cover when the PCV is hooked up to vacuum, that means it's not very effective or you have more going in than the PCV can remove.
And with oil puking out the dipstick tube I'd suspect it even more.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

One quickie test at least would be to just pull the valve out of the cover while the engine is idling. If you feel/hear a big vacuum leak and the engine tries to die (or rev up even?) then it's working. If not, then something is perhaps blocking the port on the carb.
Oh, and maybe I missed it in your first post, but what carb do you have? Is the hose barb for the PCV in the base of the carburetor, or is it in a separate plate beneath the carb, like came stock?

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Oh, and did you say that the steam was still coming out the exhaust too? Or are you just getting some flowing out of the top of the valve cover?
If the exhaust, then, like the others were saying, you've got other issues.

With luck though, it's as simple as too much moisture buildup inside the exhaust system. Yeah, by now it should have dissipated, but hey, we can hope!

Paul

 

[buckn74]

carb

The carb is a edelbrock 600, the pcv valve is hooked to the base of the carb itself. the steam coming out the exhaust has cleared up.
But now it puking oil again.

 

[is_wiz]

i am having the exact, exact, same problem. freaking dipstick keeps leaking. the pcv valve is sucking strong. i can feel it with my finger.

 

[ssray]

The intake gaskets are new. Wouldnt a leaky head gasket cause the oil to turn white and frothy? The oil still looks good. I'll keep checking it.

As Viperwolf1 mentioned do keep a close tab on Coolant level. Main bearings do not like antifreeze. Unexpected things do happen on engines sometimes. If it's only leaking coolant when running or warm you might not get a lot of coolant showing up as it's burning off more so than mixing in the oil. I luckily caught a tractor blowing steam out the breather years ago. The gear driven water pump had failed and was leaking coolant into the crankcase. Took it home and immediately drained the oil but couldn't really see evidence of water in the oil. My understanding from mechanics is that it's worse if coolant leaks into the crankcase when sitting and can get mixed with oil and into bearings. I've seen a little 4 cylinder Ford only leak coolant into the crankcase when it was running and I've had a 300 six put oil into the coolant when the two center cylinders cracked. Your case might be something totally different but when there's any chance coolant is involved take some extra care.

Scott

 

[Steve83]

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