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Why is oil in my air cleaner housing?


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I have an 85 GL Wagon (4wd, non-turbo).  It is all stock with 140k miles.  It runs perfect, however somehow oil is finding it's way into  the air filter housing.  The filter itself is saturated on one side and oil seems to be making it's way from inside the housing to outside the houseing.  I recently replaced the PCV with a new Subaru unit, do to a condition where it would smoke like mad while taking a high-g curve at speed.  It still smokes during high-speed, tight curves, so I try not to go too fast around such curves.  I assume these two conditions are related.  She is perfect but for this annoyance.  Anyone know what would be causing this? 

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The oil is coming up through the PCV system.  I don't have any carb'd EA82s, so my help is somewhat generic.

 

On the filter housing, there should be a hose that runs to at least one of the valve covers.  You will probably find that this is where the oil is coming from.  Check the metal tubes coming out of the valve covers, as these tend to crud up and restrict flow through them, with the result that oil can "pump up" into the PCV system and not drain back into the valve covers.

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There is s little breather box in the valve covers that those tubes go into, and there can be quite a bit of crud in there... but the main concern would be the tubes themselves.  The breather hose(es) that go to those tubes can also build up crud.

 

Is your PCV system "stock" to the best of your knowledge?

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The hoses may be carboned up like corroded arteries. This can cause oil suction if the PCV is not venting properly. Also check for proper routing of the hoses. A lot of it could be residual from before replacing the PCV valve. 

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I have an 85 GL Wagon (4wd, non-turbo).  It is all stock with 140k miles.  It runs perfect, however somehow oil is finding it's way into  the air filter housing.  The filter itself is saturated on one side and oil seems to be making it's way from inside the housing to outside the houseing.  I recently replaced the PCV with a new Subaru unit, do to a condition where it would smoke like mad while taking a high-g curve at speed.  It still smokes during high-speed, tight curves, so I try not to go too fast around such curves.  I assume these two conditions are related.  She is perfect but for this annoyance.  Anyone know what would be causing this? 

 

To the best of my knowledge and memory, the smoking in high-g corners was a design issue and I believe there was some kind of fix that Subaru offered.  I think the PCV system sucks up oil in the high-g corner, but I don't do ea82 so I am not 100% sure.  This was discussed quite a bit on the old site, not sure if all that information made it over when we switched, but if you search you should be able to find a better description of the problem and solution.

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  • 6 months later...

Disregard.  I took a long-hard corner at speed yesterday and dumped about a quart of oil into the air box and smoked up the highway.  :mad:  :banghead:  and flooded the air box with oil.  WTF?  Now I have no idea which way is up. 

 

On the driver side valve cover, should the vent tube/line be going to the t-fitting leading to the PVC or to the hardline running behind the air filter housing that looks to eventualy vent into the air box by the carb?  This is unnerving. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

 

Damn I hate the thought of a permanent oil catch can, but it is looking that way.

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