I just replaced the PCV system on my GF's '93 850 a few months ago but recently she had mentioned that she was smelling exhaust which is worse when the windows are down. I finally have had a chance to check it out today and ran into some problems. First of all, it was a BEAR to get started. It's been sitting idle in the driveway for maybe 6 days now as we've been on vacation but when she tried to start it, it refused. It only started when I forced the issue (lol) then ran rough for a minute or so until it calmed down. I ran it down the highway and it seemed okay after that HOWEVER I did smell quite a bit of blow by. When I got it back to the driveway an poped the hood, here's two more things that I noticed; first of all, the oil was a quart low and it's not due for a change for a while. Secondly, when I pulled the dipstick, I saw the dreaded whisp of smoke coming out of the tube. I started the car up with the stick out and, to quote my girlfriend, "It (the smoke coming from the dipstick tube) looks like a steam engine"... Ugh... It's nearly to the point where we are just going to try to purchase something else as neither of us trust driving the car very far anymore so we really don't want to put much more money into it if at all possible. Any thoughts as to what we can do? We can't afford to purchase anything else until probably in the fall sometime...

 

If you smell oil it has to be leaking somewhere. Is it leaking out of one of the cams? Pull the timing blet and see if you see oil in there. Maybe you have a bad valve, I would do a compression test.

 

You really think it's something that serious? Reason I ask is that after I changed out the PCV everything seemed to be just fine for a few weeks and it wasn't losing any oil that I noticed. Besides, I don't have a way to do a compression test :\

 

after my parents had the pcv replaced on their 96 glt it started leaking profusly from the main crank seals, but they had driven it for a long time like that at 6000 feet above sea level. check for oil leaks at the cams and the back of the block. did you replace the dipstick tube gasket?

 

I replaced the PCV on our S70 because it was blowing the dip stick out and smoking. I have no idea how long it was clogged but we drove it for 3 months before I realized it was clogged. A year later the cam seals failed. My guess is that they were bearing pressure from before the PCV was replaced. Maybe they were just cheap after market seals that would have blown anyway.

I have heard people stress making sure the engine ports are clear, where the PCV connects to the block. I did my best to make sure they were clear.

 

Maybe I should pull the PCV again to make VERY sure that the ports are clear? I thought I got the gunk out, but maybe I didn't as I wasn't **** about getting them cleared out as I probably should have been. When I got to that point I was at a point of frustration and probably didn't spend as much time cleaning them out as I probably should have... What would be the best method in making sure they are cleaned out? Should I use Q-Tips or something along those lines?? I'm just concerned about pushing gunk back into the block or something...

 

I'm not sure. I would like to know myself. I tried to use something hard, like a small screw driver but I don't think mine was to bad. I suspect that this car is clogged but I don't see the signs, no smoke and no oil on top of the motor. However, I think my RMS is leaking and I don't know it's history.