So I was driving on the freeway at about 70 mph when I applied the breaks and started slowing down. I then heard one loud pop under the hood that seemed to be on the right side. The engine never lost performance and kept on going. About 10 miles later, I reach my destination and checked under the hood. It looks like it pushed some oil out from under the valve cover (it leaked there anyways). I don't see any leaks other than that spot and I am about 1/2 court low on oil. Looking for the quick fix, I noticed the #2 & #3 plug wires were swapped. I took the valve cover off and everything "looks" fine. Am I being too optimistic thinking this was the issue and I only heard a backfire? Thanks, Jon
If someone swapped 2 wires around then it probably was just a backfire caused by the 2 cyls being out of time. Sounds like you need to fix the leak or check the oil more often.
If you had two wires crossed you will have a loss of power. Also what is the condition of your crank case breather?
CC breather looks to be in normal condition. No one has touched those wire in months so I would probably wouldn't have not noticed any diffrence in power. Note, it is a 352... what power lol. Thanks for the feedback so far.
You need to test your PCV/block breather...looks say nothing about its function. It should be a one way design, air should only flow from inside the engine to outside. That is how you can keep a vac*** which will prevent the engine from puking oil out.
Okay, so I changed the oil, replaced the breather cap, and replaced the valve gasket. I got her running and was letting it idle for about 5 minutes and then there was a small bang and oil started to fly out around the pum and filter. I lost about two quarts in about 15 seconds. I cleaned up the mess and could not find any cracks or obvious causes. I cranked the filter a little tighter hoping it was an error in my instalation and started it again. after about 20 seconds of idling, it started flowing out oil again. this time it was just a small stream of oil coming down the filter. Could it be the gasket for the oil pump or the pump itself? This is the first issue like this one that I have ever seen. Unfortunatly, the filter is tight so I don't think that's the issue and everything else "looks" okay. Any advise before I start teaing things apart? Thanks in advance!
kinda sounds like excessive crankcase pressure to me. are you running an older stock intake with the pcv fitting in the back? those are notorious for getting packed and clogged from the carbon on the underside of the intake.
Stock intake. I did pick up a new breather... should it matter what kind? I did put the old one back on thinking it could have been related.
Oil pump is IN the engine. There is a gasket on the oil filter housing the could blow. Check the oil sending unit. Have seen this before. I would put a mechanical gauge on it and check oil pressure. Possible stuck pressure relief vale in pump. Run a compression test on all cylinders.
pull the plug wires one at a time to look for a dead hole, if you have a cylinder thats bleeding pressure into the crankcase it may be your issue. do a compression test too. at least that will give you a good starting point before you actually have to rip into anything.
So I picked up a cheap compression gauge from Harbor Freight and took my readings. Cylinders 1-4 P***enger side front to back readings were 108, 90, 107 & 120 PSI 4-8 Front to back drivers side 95, 120, 110 & 100 PSI. I know these sound low, but all the readings were within 30 PSI of each other on each head and the pressure never dropped before I released the pressure on the gauge. I read some reviews on the gauge and some folks said they have seen this gauge up to 60 PSI off of actual. Am I wrong to think if I had a compression issue, it would have jumped out as an cylinder showing a reading far from the others? At this point, I am going to pull of the filter bracket to the block and replace the gasket as well as the filter seal… As always, any advice is welcomed. Thanks for what you guys have put up so far. PS, the spark plugs were very clean.
Compression should be with in 10% of each other. Compression has nothing to do with oil leaking out unless you have no oil pressure and lifters are collapsing and causing valves to not open. If that was the case then engine would be rattling.
had an oil pressure relief valve stick shut on a big block mopar - heard a pop and lost oil REAL FAST as the filter split and sprayed the oil everywhere. You may have just blown out the gasket under the filter, but I would be inclined to check the pump out.
I've also heard of this happening when someone forgot to remove the old gasket when they installed a new filter and gasket. Two gaskets will hold for awhile but will eventually pop apart with catastrophic loss of oil.
If it is running fine I would just fix the oil leak and go on with life. But you could take another common approach, "If it aint broke fix it 'til it is."
The compression numbers are low enough across the board to indicate a lot of blow by. If you have a venting restriction at all you could be seeing very high crankcase pressures and that can blow oil out of just about any week point.
Typically blowby gets ****ed into the chamber & you see a cloud out the ex pipe. One earlier post talked about a clogged PCV p***age & oil blowing out the dip stick is a crankcase unable to breath.
THe last time I had a POP driving down the freeway, it led to me replacing the ignition switch. Look around....strange things happen
Any tips on getting the pan off? I have all the bolts off, but this sun of a gun is in there good. Should I just start with a razor blade and work my way through the RTV? I figured I would start with the oil pump because that's where I lost my oil and is only about 40 bucks. Thanks.
You will probably have to unbolt the motor mounts and jack/Cherry pick the motor high enough to get enough space to drop the pan low enough to get past the oil pump pick-up tube.
Are you pulling the oil pan off in the car ??? Tough to get the block up high enough and must drop oil pump off the block and into the pan to slide the pan around the cross member. Use a wire to pull oil pump up to the block after all is cleaned and gasket installed and pan slid back in place. Can be done just relax and take your time with some help. I agree with to much crankcase pressure...make sure it is breathing...Good Luck..
Very easy to check the H/F Compression tester gauge, Use a known good gauge and a regulator, apply air pressure with a air gun and rubber hose to seal off any leaks and compare the readings, TR
Are you kidding? Blow by is combustion pressure getting past the rings. How do you propose it gets ****ed into the chamber unless it it through the PCV system? Low compression = bad rings, bad rings can = lots-O- blow by. Oh and by the way the PCV system can be quickly overwhelmed by bad blow by.
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