water in crankcase vent system?

[DavidT]

The hose that runs from the valve cover to the TB area has a white/milky coating inside it.
What does it mean?
Is it a blown head gasket? How else does coolant get in there?
Or is it something else?

 

[shojuan]

Blown head gasket is the only thing I can think of frown

 

[DavidT]

What are the symptoms of *gulp* a blown head gasket?
I had a compression test done a year ago, and all 6 cylinders were within 2-3 psi .

 

[Rob94]

Before you panic, drain your oil and see what it looks like.

 

[DavidT]

somebody else told me that. What would the oil look like if it was BHG?

 

[shojuan]

Milky brown, like an emulsion. You can check your dipstick real quick too. After refilling with fresh oil see if that stays clean or turns milky brown. Also does your coolant level go down mysteriously. Maybe if you're lucky it was just some condensation in there.

 

[SHOZ123]

That is normal. This is the fresh air supply hose for the PCV system. The fresh air has water vapor in it that mixes with the blowby gasses and condenses out. This is also what is being sucked into your intake and causes the sludge problem there. When it bakes on the valves and butterflies do to the high temps of heat soak it turns into carbon.

This is one of the reasons I plug this line. It greatly reduces the amount of water vapor that is drawn into the crankcase. On my '97 with the catch can the volume of collected sludge was cut in half after plugging this line.

 

[DavidT]

shoz123,
Thanks for the relief!
Do you plug this line, or the one below the throttle body?
BTW, There is one 5/8 hose I am having a time undoing to get my intake off! It is below the TB (its not the coolant line) Is this the PVC line where a catch can will go?

 

[Rob94]

Good call Paul.

 

[SHOZ123]

dkautumna:
shoz123,
Thanks for the relief!
Do you plug this line, or the one below the throttle body?
BTW, There is one 5/8 hose I am having a time undoing to get my intake off! It is below the TB (its not the coolant line) Is this the PVC line where a catch can will go?

Well I do but some people think I'm crazy...

The 5/8" line under the TB is the PCV suction line. Yes it is where the catch can should go. Just get some longer hose and mount the catch can where it is convenient. Actually the longer the hose the better as it gives the gasses more time and surface area to condense out on. Just do not let a trap be formed by a rise,drop,rise in the hose.

 

[DavidT]

So basically, the catch can goes in-line with the current hose(except the hose is replaced with a longer one)?
How do you plug the other line?
Are there any drawbacks to putting in a catch can? Where do you get them at?
Thanks thumbs_u

<small>[ February 16, 2003, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: dkautumna ]</small>

 

[SHOZ123]

I made mine out of an aluminum tube and some plastic hose fittings. Use 3/8" vacuum caps to plug the two hose fittings.

Catch can pics