When it rains it pours!!!

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:46 am

Greetings,

It has been -50 degrees for the last several days in Indiana. I was driving to work and all of a sudden I started smelling burnt oil. I pulled over to to a gas station and noticed oil on the ground. I pooped my hood and there was freakin oil everywhere, on both sides of the block. I checked my oil and found that it was completely empty. I limped back to my brother-in-laws house and I pulled the dipstick and nothing but pssssssssssst! Crankcase pressure=not good. My rig is parked right now but I'm going to fill with oil and see if I can replicate the issue. I'm leaning towards a bad cam cover gasket. Also, the camshaft actuators connector was filled with oil. The plus side is I'm not losing coolant. Here is some pics.http://s853.photobucket.com/user/dshep6 ... 0.jpg.html

http://i853.photobucket.com/albums/ab10 ... 34bf0e.jpg

by **DustinC1989** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:51 am

The oil inside the intake looks kinda milky...

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:26 am

That was a photo from a while ago. I'm not losing coolant. No overheating issues.....

by **DustinC1989** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:45 am

Oh, my bad. It showed up right next to it when I clicked the link.

Seems like it would take quite awhile for it to lose 7qts of oil through a cam cover gasket.
I would have plenty of oil on hand and see if you can find exactly where its coming from

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 2:19 am

Well I had already drove 30 minutes before I discovered the problem. Plus another 30 minutes to my brother in laws. I'm going to check the hose on the bottom of the resonator box to see if it's clogged. Oil is on both sides of the cam cover.

by **v7guy** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 2:40 am

Not to kick a man while he's down, but did you seriously find no oil on the dipstick and then drive home anyway? That's one of the quickest and best ways available to completely destroy the motor. Don't ever do that, ever.
Have you popped the radiator cap to see if any oil is in the coolant?
Does the gauge show that you have oil pressure?
Is the pcv hose still attached to the intake?
Generally speaking you get milky oil from water being whipped up in the oil. It could just be condensation from not driving it for awhile, or frequent short drives, could be seeping coolant.
The pcv tube is known to kick oil up into the intake (GM seems to live doing this), it's likely one of the reasons we have to clean the throttle body regularly, but that looks excessive from what I've seen in these motors.

I would fill it up with oil, clean up the motor, start it up and see where it's spewing from.

One of the quickest ways I can think of to lose a lot of oil quick to the outside of the motor is if the oil pressure sensor broke, I've seen the top of those snap off and since they're plumbed to pressurized oil passages they dump the oil out in a minute or two. Maybe a cracked cam cover, or intake would do it. But I've never seen that happen.

Some of the guys here have a lot more time with these particular motors though, maybe they'll have some more thoughts.

Oh yeah, did I mention that you shouldn't drive a vehicle if the motor doesn't have oil in it? Cause you shouldn't. Not for 5 minutes, or 30 minutes, hell, don't run the thing at all. I'll be surprised if you haven't spun a rod or crank bearing already.

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:22 am

Lol!! I appreciate the input, but I did put oil back in. I limped it to my brother in laws and parked it. Radiator looks good. I just replaced my fan clutch and water pump. Dex cool is holding steady. Now I've always had a problem with oil coming in the PVC tube into the resonator. Whatever happened it was because it was cold as shit here. I'm digging into tomorrow, but right now it's parked. The issue that perplexes me is when I noticed there was no oil my oil gauge was still reading 40-50

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:31 am

Oh when I removed my dipstick I released a bunch of pressure.

by **DustinC1989** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:55 am

It has been just as cold here and I've had 0 problems like that, so I'm sure there is far more to it than being colder than shit.
Sounds like a problem with the PCV possibly

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 4:33 am

I'm sure there is, I just need to figure out what blew! 7 quarts is a lot!

by **v7guy** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 4:53 am

about the only problem you could have with the pcv is maybe the metered orfice in the tube is clogged. I suppose that could cause a build up of pressure in the crank case.

I guess the PCV tube could of cracked and sent oil everywhere.

You'll have a couple quarts in the motor even if it's not registering on the dipstick.

by **Aries** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:15 am

DustinC1989 wrote:Sounds like a problem with the PCV possibly

That could be one cause. First I would find out where the oil was coming from. Did you lose any of the oil that you put in the second time?
Also you might have to do a compression check to see if combustion is getting down into the crank case.

YouTube Videos · by **Trail X** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:42 pm

But there shouldn't be oil in the PCV tube if things are functioning properly, it's just a breather. Even if it cracks, I can't imagine it would spew oil. If you've got oil coming up through the tube, I'd imagine it's a super plugged upper head drain, and your cam covers are jam packed with oil. If the oil is coming out the PCV, then you have the potential to hydrolock (er, oil-lock) your engine.

by **v7guy** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 2:26 pm

James, I was envisioning one of those motors where it looks like somebody eptied a tub of grease under the valve and cam covers. Basically blocking off everything and pressurizing the crank case.
The oil/milkshake in the intake/resonator etc has been a problem for him since he posted about his possible head gasket failure a couple months back. Maybe this has something to do with that, maybe not... :shrug:

I vote he takes it over to Erik and lets him take a look. :raspberry:

YouTube Videos · by **Trail X** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:47 pm

I'm with you. Looks like the cam covers need to come off at a minimum though. I wonder how long the engine has been low on oil. Its a bad leak, but not something that looks like it should have bled out in minutes or anything.

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 4:49 pm

Engine still runs fine. I lost oil the second time also. The cam actuator electrical connector was filled with oil. My engine seems to run fine not misfire, rough idle, etc. I'm looking at it tomorrow.

by **navigator** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:24 pm

I haven't looked into it but I saw a flash on the news this week that motor oil freezes at 15 degrees..... I would expect we would see engine issues all over the country though if that were true because there has been a lot of really cold weather in places that isn't used to it where the engines don't have block heaters etc.

MY Youtube Channel · by **TBYODA** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 5:53 pm

Quick googling comes up with -40C (not sure how true) but I can see it getting very thick with all the cold weather.

by **Spot u 3** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:03 pm

It was -50 for 2 days in a row.

by **navigator** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:41 pm

yeah, I did some googling too and see 15C not F but most of the hits are like you mention much cooler.

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