I was taking off from a stop light (after driving for about 45 minutes) when my Subie started sputtering badly.

 

I had to feather the accelerator to get it off on the shoulder. No power, and it would not idle. Had a buddy tow me home.

 

Pulled the air cleaner cover and saw a bunch of oil. Inside of the air filter and out. The air filter had a lot of oil on it, too.

 

Let her sit for a few weeks and tried starting and she fired up. Drove about 1/3 mile and she stalled again. Towed her back and let her sit.

 

Tried starting again today and she fired right up and idled. But I can't trust her to drive until I troubleshoot this and repair.

 

This vehicle has a carb (no EFI) and has about 250,000 miles on her. Manual transmission, 4WD.

 

Any ideas? I'm certainly not a mechanic, but I can turn a wrench if lead in the right direction.

Oil in the filter housing comes from the PCV system. Sounds like it starved for air. Clean all the PCV lines, replace the PCV valve and filter and the air filter, and make sure the ports on the valve covers are not blocked internally.

 

GD

GD is probably right, but your symptoms also describe a stopped up catalytic converter.

Thanks guys. I'll get on the PCV system this week and report back.

 

Finally got to the PVC (and filters) and she ran fine for a bit. Took her out today and she died again.

 

Decided to pull the air cleaner cover off to get some fresh air down the pipe, and I got it started, but had to pump the pedal like crazy to keep it running. And then, under the hood I spied, oil pumping out into the air cleaner! I mean it was gurgling out like crazy! From the driver's seat, it was squirting out from the right hand side of the air cleaner.

 

Crap!

 

Any ideas?

 

BTW, I did the Seafoam down the PVC hose dealo today before I took her for a spin.

Subscribing as I bought one that has the same problem and am clueless.

i had to change the hose for the pcv valve on mine.

i tried seafoaming it and it opened it up a little but not enough.

 

also the first time i changed the hose it was a little too big and didnt seal well and my problems continued until i put on a proper sealing hose.

 

once you get it to stop blowing oil, your carb will probably need a real good cleaning to function right again. mine did.

 

 

good luck, Bill

I think your problem goes a little more beyond a pcv valve. Check your cat see if its plugged up. when ur exhaust has no where to go, it will blow past your rings into the crank creating excessive blow by. Drill a hole in the pipe in front of the cat and take it for a spin. it will be loud but if the blow by stops, replace the cat

I'm still having the stalling problem.

 

So far I have:

 

-Replaced the PCV

 

-Gutted the cat

 

 

After gutting the cat, it ran fine for about 10 miles, then started smoking, then died due to oil dumping into the air cleaner again.

 

Any further ideas??????

ej swap?

 

did u gut both cats if it was equiped with 2?

 

do a compression test see if you have a dead cylinder... does it miss or anything.. although i guess a dead cylinder wouldnt really do this...

Edited November 12, 200817 yr by ()__1337_CRAYOLA__()>

You need to clean all the PCV hoses, and replace the PCV filter in the air-box. Replacing the valve alone will not cure the problem.

 

GD

I gutted the front cat, the rear was already empty.

 

I really don't think it's a dead cylinder as it runs fine for awhile, then oil dumps into the carb throat and kills it.

OK.

 

I'll clean or replace the PVC hose, and find and replace the filter inside of the air cleaner (I wasn't able to locate one locally.)