Oil Breather pipework & Spark plugs....

[S4_dan]

I've noticed a slight oil burning smell from engine bay and decided to remove the rockers and check the gaskets and re-seal them with a bit of gasket sealer with main gasket.

During the removal I broke my extremely brittle breather pipe (again, already has 3 repairs to it!!) I noticed that the pipework from Bank 1 was full of gunked, mayo residue whilst the short pipe on Bank 2 was clear.

The underside of the rockers were both clear and no residue anywhere to be seen. Both sides were dribbling a bit of oil onto the manifolds so hopefully that's now sorted.

Why is there lots of white gunk? What harm will it do? I have cleaned it all out. I started the car and felt for any pressure/vacuum coming from the broken breather pipe from the TB, and there was nothing at all. Also, the same thing was with the breather coming from the rocker cover! Nothing.


Also, I whipped out all the plugs whilst in there and found that cylinder three plug was wet and all the others were dark black but dry. Car hadn't been started since last night. I checked the resistance on the HT lead for both side. The lead with the wet plug measured 5.11 K ohms where the opposite plug lead only measured 5.03 K ohms.

So I measured the two medium length leads and they were almost the same in resistance. Any one have any ideas if the higher resistance could be causing the missfire/hesistation?

Cheers,

Dan

 

[audiv8quattro]

Hi can't really help you with the spark plugs but I have exactly the same mayoie kind of gunk in the left (as you look at the car) side breather hose, like it all the time and I've had no problems with it, there's no mayoie gunk on the oil filler cap ect so sure it is fine, I bet if you drive the car for half hour after cleaning pipes the gunk is back there, mine is.

 

[Bradderz_1988]

The gunk is caused by condensation in the breathers mixing with the oil ive seen few vauxhalls suffer from this gunk too in the breather system if it blocks up it can cause the crankcase pressure to become high and can sometimes blow through the rocker seals.

 

[Bradderz_1988]

Also your plugs 0.8 ohms resistance isnt that much tbh sometines the multimeters csn be out a little if it was 1.5 ohms or more then maybe but it could also indicate that there may be some sort underlying fault ie corrosiono or breakage, try swapping the plug to a differant cylinder and see what you get then swap the leads round and plugs and see what happens.

 

[aragorn]

Stick up a photo of the plug. Might be oil contamination?

The mayo is condensation, and its caused by short journeys. I presume the car rarely gets a decent long run?

 

[audiv8quattro]

Hi completely hijacking your thread I know sorry, bit of an embarrassing question really as its probably simple but how do you test resistance on the ht leads, eg where does the red wire and black wire go from the multimeter ect, never really used a multimeter before only to test battery voltage. Thanks

 

[S4_dan]

The gunk is caused by condensation in the breathers mixing with the oil ive seen few vauxhalls suffer from this gunk too in the breather system if it blocks up it can cause the crankcase pressure to become high and can sometimes blow through the rocker seals.

Just re-sealed my rocker gaskets as I had a slight weep on both banks. Only slight though.

Also your plugs 0.8 ohms resistance isnt that much tbh sometines the multimeters csn be out a little if it was 1.5 ohms or more then maybe but it could also indicate that there may be some sort underlying fault ie corrosiono or breakage, try swapping the plug to a differant cylinder and see what you get then swap the leads round and plugs and see what happens.

I've moved the plug to cylinder 1 and will check again in a few days time. I've left the leads in the same order for now. Got a very expensive all singing and dancing multi-meter. Hooks with laptop and everything. Amazing piece of kit. The alleged +/- is very very low.

Stick up a photo of the plug. Might be oil contamination?

The mayo is condensation, and its caused by short journeys. I presume the car rarely gets a decent long run?

Oil contamination? As in oil passing my piston rings? Oh, and remember that blue smoke on startup? Well, it's stopped doing it?! How random is that?

Only time my car does a short journey (2 mile) is when i leave the local pub, which isn't very often. Other than that, I only use the car to go work and back which is 14.5 miles each way.

Hi completely hijacking your thread I know sorry, bit of an embarrassing question really as its probably simple but how do you test resistance on the ht leads, eg where does the red wire and black wire go from the multimeter ect, never really used a multimeter before only to test battery voltage. Thanks

Take lead off the plug & coil. It doesn't matter which end you put red/black wire to test the wire. Put multi-meter onto ohms (Ω) and test. Your multi-meter might have different Ω values, mine ended up selecting KΩ.

 

[aragorn]

Yeh, oil either passing the rings or leaking down the valve stem oil seals.

 

[S4_dan]

When I check the plugs again at the weekend, if its still wet, i'll post a pic.

 

[audiv8quattro]

Thanks for that dan stupidly easy I feel stupid now lol, but anyway just checked my leads (well 3 of them) numbers 4 5 &6 and 5,6 is showing 6.32 and number 4 is 6.41 again sorry to hijack your thread but is my multimeter broke or are these readings extremely high, compared to your readings they seem high,

 

[murran]

the plugs will be black in colour with short journeys. 14.5 miles isnt really a short journey tho. hmmm wierd.

the plug thats wet. is it oil or fuel? have you moved that plug to a different cylinder then?
if you have no luck and the number 3 plug looks wet again. id move the injector see if the wetness follows the move.

 

[S4_dan]

Thanks for that dan stupidly easy I feel stupid now lol, but anyway just checked my leads (well 3 of them) numbers 4 5 &6 and 5,6 is showing 6.32 and number 4 is 6.41 again sorry to hijack your thread but is my multimeter broke or are these readings extremely high, compared to your readings they seem high,

Not sure. How old are your HT leads? Could be due to different materials used in the leads or a difference in the age of the leads. Need to find what new leads should read. The length of the lead will also show a different reading.

the plugs will be black in colour with short journeys. 14.5 miles isnt really a short journey tho. hmmm wierd.

the plug thats wet. is it oil or fuel? have you moved that plug to a different cylinder then?
if you have no luck and the number 3 plug looks wet again. id move the injector see if the wetness follows the move.

Just looked a bit 'carboned' up to be honest. The wet smelt like fuel but they are going to smell of fuel either way. Yes I've moved that plug to cylinder 1, and will check if cyl 3 plug is now wet at the weekend.

One thing I have noticed since all of this, is that the hesitation is now very very light indeed and now without the 'pops' in the exhaust. In fact, I struggle to feel/notice when it's doing it now.

How strange?!?!?!