Ok, I have an odd PCV question. I know the ultimate answer - my rings
must be worn, and I shouldn't have positive crankcase pressure - but I'm
looking for some interim measures. Here goes.
Back a couple years, I noticed I was buring oil irregularly in my MGB,
and quite a bit of it. I tracked it down to the PCV valve. Instead of
repairing that (like I probably should have) I put a vent filter on the
PCV line (just to keep stuff out of there) and plugged the PCV port on
the intake manifold. I rationalized this pretty well, because my MGA
just has an open vent that heads to the ground. Move forward a couple
years. Now, my car is having intermittant loss of power issues. It
doesn't happen often, but it did happen today. I'm driving along, and I
lose power. It's not enough to stop the car running....I can even
maintain speed....but I can feel it, and have to give it more gas. The
loss of power lasts about 30 seconds to a couple minutes. Then the
power comes back to normal, and is fine for a while - sometimes a couple
weeks. I suspected my heater valve was leaking on the distributor, but
it's not. Then I suspected an ignition system wire somewhere, but they
look good (and I don't seen any evidence of shorts). But what I did see
is a bunch of oil that appears to have come out of my PCV vent filter.
So my conclusion is that I'm building up too much crankcase pressure,
and when it gets up enough to force it out of the filter, I get the
power back. Any ideas on why the oil isn't draining back down the
pipe?? I think my first move is to replace that filter so it can breath
better. Other than that, I'm at a loss.
Phil Bates
'67 MGB
'58 MGA
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