2.4L 1996 Caravan. I noticed oil leaking from the left side valve cover tube to resonator so I took the air intake resonator out to clean everything up and hearsloshing within it. I poured out about a quart of motor oil. Any ideas as to why this is occurring? I plan to check the pcv valve and tubing but otherwise I am stumped. Thanks

 

I would ck the PCV valve too. And ck for blow by too.

 

Thank you for your help. The PCV valve rattles with shaking and I am able to suck air through it as well as blow air through it. Leaves me wondering what the valve does. Maybe it takes a greater pressureto actuate the valve than I generated with my mouth. How do I check the Blow By?

 

First a couple of questions--how is the car running? Does it idle OK? Also, is the oil level in the crankcase going down as well? This is usually a problem of excessive blowby which can be caused by worn or broken ring(s), or possibly a hole in a psiton. Sometimes if the engine is overfilled it can wind up in the valve cover and get sucked into the PCV system and then the aircleaner or in this case the resonator.

 

Thanks for explaining what is meant by blow by. The engine idles fine and I haven't noticed a decrease in power. The crankcase oil leveldecreases bya quart about every thousand miles.

How do I check for blow by? If I remove the rubber hose that runs from the left side of the valve cover to the resonator should there be positive or negative pressure at the valve cover?

Although I think the PCV valve is okay I will change it.

 

A quick way to check for blowby is to pull the hose off the valve cover and at idle, see if a lot of air exits from the hole or grommet--at idle, there should be very little air coming out. It does sound like your PCV valve is OK, but they are so cheap that it's worth a change. Normally, a bad ring or hole in a piston will result in reduced engine performance and /or poor idle, so that sounds OK for now. Make sure that both hoses (input and output) sides of the PCV valve are connected and tight. These hoses tend to get limp and slide off or not seal well.

 

Thanks! At fast idle there is virtually no air exiting from the valve cover. I'll take that as a good sign. After I change the PCV valve I will check it again. The hoses are on completely and are a challenge to remove so I think they have a good seal. I did replace one hose before this problem surfaced. I also had changed the valve cover gasket. Is it possible that I did something to cause this problem? The new hose is an inch or twolonger (to make it easier for me to reach the PCV valve).

 

The valve covers usually have a baffle inside to prevent the oil from being sucked directly into the PCV system--did you look inside the cover and notice anything like that? Also, it may be possible that oil is accumulating on top of the cylinder head due to a restricted return hole or passage. You may want to use an oil flushing product like you can buy at Autozone, etc to make sure there is no debris such as a piece of that old cover gasket or sludge laying in or on top of the return passage--in fact if you think that may be a possibility, you may want to pull the cover and see if you can see anything.

 

The more I think about this, I'm guessing that when you replaced the valve cover gasket, a bit fell off into one of the return passages. You can fix this by removing the cover again and look for one or two return holes or passages in the head casting. I would take a wire or coat hanger and shove it down anything that looks like a drain or return passage. If it is a piece of gasket, it won't hurtt anything--just get it out of the passage and let it drop into the pan for your next oil change