Engine oil in injector housing.

21st May 2011, 13:07

My sons car is a 1997 1.1.

He just took off the air filter cover and we notice a fair amount of black engine oil around the inside top of the injector housing.

When you look at the plastic housing that goes from the air filter to the injection unit, it is clean at the air filter end and oily at the injector end.

There is a pipe from the rocker cover to this housing. This pipe has a small chamber about 40-50mm dia. Should there be some kind of filter in there to stop oil going from the rocker cover in the air inlet and does anyone know what this chamber is called ?

21st May 2011, 13:10

Nope, the rocker cover breather goes straight into the standard air box, this means, as you have found out that you get a lot of oil go into the intake manifold.

That's why most people block the hole in the filter pipe (Or change filters all together)
And put a small breather filter, or oil catch tank on the Rocker Cover breather.

This also lets the engine run smoother as it isn't sucking in oil and fumes.

21st May 2011, 13:29

Cheers for that, this picture shows this bit I am talking about. It is the part in the bottom right hand corner with the silver jubilee clips.

Can we just block one side of the pipe ?

21st May 2011, 13:33

yes but you would need a breather filter for the rocker cover

21st May 2011, 14:01

Here you go mate.

21st May 2011, 14:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bikekid450

Here you go mate.

great post!

21st May 2011, 16:45

You can just leave it as it is, it is perfectly normal. It is condensed oil vapour that needs to breathe from the crank case while the engine is running. It is best to leave it as it is because the ECU will have been programmed to expect this gas stream being fed into the inlet.

It is only a problem if you have broken or worn piston rings. If that were the case oil consumption would be high and you would get smoke from the exhaust

21st May 2011, 19:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bikekid450

Nope, the rocker cover breather goes straight into the standard air box, this means, as you have found out that you get a lot of oil go into the intake manifold.

That's why most people block the hole in the filter pipe (Or change filters all together)
And put a small breather filter, or oil catch tank on the Rocker Cover breather.

This also lets the engine run smoother as it isn't sucking in oil and fumes.

Is this true? it would run smoother? As VTS123 said, it will have been programmed to cope with it all..i suppose the main reason for it is down to being 'green' and emisions etc?

21st May 2011, 19:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by stured

Is this true? it would run smoother? As VTS123 said, it will have been programmed to cope with it all..i suppose the main reason for it is down to being 'green' and emisions etc?

Yeh it's for emissions. But no Engine likes breathing in oil and fumes, you can't Map an ECU so the Engine it self will like it, the cleaner the air the better, with ALL engines.

21st May 2011, 20:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bikekid450

Yeh it's for emissions. But no Engine likes breathing in oil and fumes, you can't Map an ECU so the Engine it self will like it, the cleaner the air the better, with ALL engines.

Very true to be fair. I was rather worried about mine when i saw it...thought it may be causing the misfire but told otherwise

21st May 2011, 22:14

I will post a picture in the morning to show how much oil is in there.

21st May 2011, 22:38

theres normally a seal in the airbox set up that goes on the 1.1 lumps and causes the oil to leak/pool where it shouldnt, instead of being sucked in through the inlet

21st May 2011, 22:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by leaky5

I will post a picture in the morning to show how much oil is in there.

They always look alarming. Generally though, as long as there is no smoke coming from the exhaust there isn't anything wrong.

You will get less and what there is won't be black if you give it a fresh sump full of quality 10W-40.

How many miles has it done and when was the oil last changed?

22nd May 2011, 09:46

It has done approx 130k miles, not sure when the last oil change was done. It is doing about 25mpg, lots of shortish trips. You get a small amount of blue smoke, but only when it is started.

22nd May 2011, 11:01

I'd definately start with an oil and filter change - the oil has almost certainly totally had it. It's amazing what fresh oil can do!!! It won't improve your MPG though. Put a new air filter and set of spark plugs in as well and go from there. All of this will set you back about £30 to £40 in parts (about half the cost of a tank of fuel!).

Definately change the oil and filter twice a year from now on - always important but more so if used for short trips.

All due respect to other contributors but modifications with catch tanks and cutting breather pipes etc. isn't really something this standard spec car wants. One reason the oil vapours are fed to the inlet and burnt off is that they are carcinogenic!

22nd May 2011, 12:21

its not to do with the engine being mapped to deal with it though, its to do with negative pressure in the crank case or something like that. There was a good discussion about it on AXOC between some intelligent types that work for bentley or something

22nd May 2011, 12:38

Hmm, That oil is like muddy water, you should changed that ASAP before your bearings and other moving parts start to fail.

As for the oil in the inlet, what I would do is clean it out and do what I said before and stick some breather filters on them. That way you won't get the oil going in there again. But it won't fix the blow by you're obviously getting.