So I did the infamous 'glove test' and this was the result:



It is filling with air, albeit very little (even less than it appears in image, and it is a very light, cheap glove) and nowhere near as much as other P80's that fail this test. But regardless you guys ought to know better than me so what should I do?

For additional reference the car in question is a N/A manual 96' wagon with 232k miles on it. Well maintained and owned by two old guys prior to me.

 

Time to break out the tools.

 

Yeah figured as much, might put a couple thousand more miles on it before then though, I also have a clutch and an exhaust manifold to replace.

 

It doesn't look overly bad as of yet. As a second quick test, you can also pull out the dipstick to see if any blow-by smoke comes out.

On the 850s you will need to lift up the intake manifold to get at the hoses etc. Also you will want to rod out the ports into the block since they can clog up. You may even want to consider doing a Seafoam treatment to get some of the gunk loosened up. The totally thorough job would be to drop the oil pan and clean from there but that may be overkill.

Check YouTube, pretty sure RobertDIY has a how to video for doing the PCV/oil separator. FCP, IPD etc sell a kit as well.

 

I followed the video on the FCP site, but mine is a turbo. Should be about the same.