Along with the timing belt job I also planned to do the breather. I've been putting it off since I got it about 70k miles (3 years) ago and car has 190k on it now. Don't know if it was ever done. I do oil changes every 5k miles with brand name synthetic. I have the impression the previous owner did okay with maintenance, didn't abuse it. He was a dentist who liked nice things. He gave me his records but I didn't see breather on there. I've never seen the symptoms of smoke from oil cap or dip stick. At one point putting paper over the oil cap I was getting outward pulsing. Yesterday I put a piece of paper towel over the dip stick and it sucked in instead of blowing out, forming a nice weal. But at the same time I see evidence of oil leak possibly from the rear main area (and I've been losing oil between changes, possibly 1 qt per 1000 miles). It's possible the rear main area leak was there when I bought it, I remember seeing it wet down there but didn't know exactly where. Now I understand that area is the rear main.

I also remember seeing a post that said at some point something was changed and pressure went from blowing the dip stick out to sucking in. I guess my main question is after I replace the breather system, given all the evidence I'm seeing (dip stick sucking in, but rear main area wet), should I expect that the breather system has been a problem all these years and the rear main is "ruined" or have I been lucky all these years and the breather system I'm planning on doing is more of a preventive maintenance. If it's the former I may put in a bottle of the rear main restore additive with little to lose.